Cyberattacks at federal agencies draw House scrutiny

As new details emerged about cyberattacks against networks at the State and Commerce departments last year, politicians on Thursday said they're concerned many federal agencies are ill-prepared to fend off such intrusions.

Members of a U.S. House of Representatives cybersecurity subcommittee said they weren't confident that the computer systems at bureaus within the State and Commerce departments were adequately secured and scrubbed of backdoors that could allow cybercrooks to re-enter. They also questioned agency representatives on whether they could truly guarantee that sensitive information hadn't been accessed or copied.

"We don't know who's inside our networks," subcommittee chairman Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) said at an afternoon hearing here. "We don't know what information has been stolen."

Indeed, 21 of 24 major federal agencies had weak or deficient information security controls in place during the last fiscal year, according to audit reports, said Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues for the Government Accountability Office.