Audit Report: IG-0459

February 15, 2000

Unclassified Computer Network Security at Selected Field Sites

Improving security for unclassified information systems is one of the top issues facing government organizations today. This issue developed as Federal agencies migrated from a closed architecture, limited-access, mainframe environment to a web-based, client/server architecture, where literally the world may access government systems. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) confirmed this reality in a series of reports to the Congress culminating in the designation of information system security as a “new Government-wide high-risk area.”