Embassies to test worldwide net

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0626/web-state-06-26-00.asp

BY Bryant Jordan
06/26/2000

The State Department is looking to its embassies in Mexico City and
New Delhi, India, as test sites for a program aimed at putting U.S.
diplomatic missions worldwide in touch with one another and with all
other federal agencies that have an overseas presence.

The proposal is the recommendation of the departments Overseas
Presence Advisory Panel, which was established more than a year ago
following terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa.

Under the plan, the department would establish an interagency,
interoperable infrastructure that would enable all agencies worldwide
to exchange e-mail and other information, according to a senior State
Department official.

Fernando Burbano, chief information officer at State, detailed the
plan before the House International Relations Committee June 22.

Burbano told the committee that the leadership role the country has in
international affairs "demands that we develop an integrated,
responsive and secure IT capability, including systems and tools that
enable us to access, manipulate and share up-to-date information and
to collaborate with others in addressing foreign policy issues."

A November 1999 panel report on overseas locations concluded that U.S.
embassies and missions are equipped with "antiquated, grossly
inefficient, and incompatible information technology systems."

Few employees have Internet access, the panel found, nor is there an
Internet or e-mail-based network to link agencies and posts. Many
department employees find the fastest way to communicate with
colleagues elsewhere overseas or in Washington, D.C., is to use their
home computers and personal Internet accounts, the report stated.

Burbano told the House committee that State was developing plans to
beef up communications between and among its overseas locations even
before the panels report was released in November 1999.

Many of the panels recommendations are included in a 1998 State
Department report, "Diplomacy for the 21st Century," Burbano said.

That report detailed five goals to be achieved by 2005.

* A secure global network and infrastructure.
* Ready access to internal affairs applications and information.
* Integrated messaging.
* Leveraging IT to streamline operations.
* Sustaining a trained productive work force.

Under the proposal that Burbano pitched to the House committee, the
pilot programs would be up and running by the end of next year.

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