U.S. Agencies Moving Slowly to Tighten Data Security, Despite Leaks

U.S. government agencies have fallen behind in installing computer software to stop data leaks.

In 2010 the White House ordered U.S. spy agencies to install programs capable of blocking "insider threats." Congress wrote the requirement into law in 2011.

But the intelligence agencies have already missed an October 1 deadline for having the software fully in use, and are warning of further delays, said Reuters.

Officials responsible for tightening data security say insider threat-detection software, which logs events such as unusually large downloads of material or attempts at unauthorized access, is expensive to adopt.

It also takes up considerable computing and communications bandwidth, degrading the performance of systems on which it is installed, Reuters said.

Reuters reported last week that the National Security Agency failed to install the most up-to-date anti-leak software at its Hawaii operations center before contractor Edward Snowden went to work there and downloaded tens of thousands of highly classified documents.

But after agencies reported they were nowhere close to meeting the October 1 goal set by Congress for having the insider threat-detections systems installed and operational, Congress pushed back the deadline.

The latest law requires the agencies to have the new security measures' basic "initial operating capability" installed by this month and to have the systems fully operational by October 1, 2014.