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The VA's information security system is also terrible
This May 19, 2014 photo shows a a sign in front of the Veterans Affairs building in Washington, DC. The VA and Secretary Eric Shinseki are under fire amid reports by former and current VA employees that up to 40 patients may have died because of delayed treatment at an agency hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. AFP PHOTO / Karen BLEIER KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

The VA's information security system is also terrible

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Inspector General released a report Thursday that said the VA has done little to create a strong information security regime, and had to repeat many of the recommendations it made last year for fixing this problem.

The report was the second in two days that criticized the VA — on Wednesday, the Inspector General released an interim report confirming some of the problems related to the VA healthcare scandal.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is also accused of having weak information security controls. AFP PHOTO / Karen BLEIER KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

Thursday's report was an assessment of the VA's computer security system that is legally required under the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA. But the report was not kind, and said the VA has a way to go before it can be seen as complying with that law.

"VA continues to face significant challenges in complying with the requirements of FISMA due to the nature and maturity of its information security program," it said.

"Weaknesses in access and configuration management controls resulted from VA not fully implementing security control standards on all servers and network devices. VA also has not effectively implemented procedures to identify and remediate system security vulnerabilities on network devices, database and server platforms, and Web applications VA-wide."

The report also found the VA has not fixed about 6,000 system security risks that had been previously identified. CliftonLarsonAllen, which was contracted to perform the audit, added that it found "material weaknesses" in VA's information security infrastructure.

Several recommendations are made in the report, most of which were made last year but have not been implemented.

For example, the report recommended that the VA implement an agency-wide risk management system, and do a better job enforcing password policies across all systems. It also said the VA needs to review information security violations when they happen, and set up policies for safely accessing data remotely.

The report caps what has become a terrible week for the VA. The Wednesday interim report on the healthcare scandal has forced a few dozen Democrats to conclude that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki should resign.

On Thursday, White House Spokesman Jay Carney declined to say whether President Obama has confidence in Shinseki to solve the problem of both the long wait times and VA's coverup.

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