Einstein Helped Pinpoint OPM Breach – Late, and at a Price

“Einstein isn’t enough,” the headline at Federal Computer Week pronounced after the most recent report of a second major data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management. Krypton Brother’s co-founder guesses he is in that database due to his secret clearance, but the more interesting question is whether the taxpayers are getting their bang for cyberdefense buck. FCW offered the view of consultants like Morgan Wright, who believes that Einstein “pretty much failed.” Apparently the breach occurred at a data center at the Department of the Interior in December 2014 and was not detected until April of 2015.  Einstein, including the latest rev 3, is budgeted at $479 million for fiscal 2016, according to FCW.

The Government is also investing in a program called Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), which addresses identity management and “endpoint security.” Here, FCW writes, the government has issued a blanket purchase agreement for $6 billion. Booz Allen was awarded $39 million of this effort, which Booz Allen refers to as “Continuous Monitoring as a Service.”