Valuing FISMA: Interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement CISO Gil Vega

FISMA has been somewhat maligned this year as a paper-pushing law that prompts chief information security officers to file the right documents rather than truly secure the IT their charged to safeguard. But Gil Vega sees a lot of good in the seven-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act. The CISO at the Department of Homeland Security agency known as ICE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - credits FISMA with getting secretaries and agency heads to recognize the importance of regularly monitoring IT security. Still, Vega says the time is right for a new law that requires the continuous monitoring of IT systems for potential threats. Vega, in an interview with GovInfoSecurity, shares his thoughts on how FISMA should be reformed as well as the actions ICE is taking in anticipation of FISMA reform to implement continuous monitoring of the agency's information assets. He also discusses the steps ICE takes in recruiting IT securing personnel and the need to find more technically skilled staffers. Vega spoke with Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor.