Re: linux at south anchorage high

> Remember the government laptop that was stolen with thousands of
> veteran's Ids on it because some one wanted to do some work from home.
> Has the VA been using a terminal server system the laptop wound not have
> had the ID data on it.

I know this doesn't have anything to do with this message but I have to
respond to this as an employee of the VA and a veteran who's information was
on that laptop. The VA does in fact use terminal servers, albeit Windows
terminal servers. The Medical information for vets is securely stored on
data servers with both physical and software access controls in place. The
point is that the person that had this information on his laptop had the
permissions required to access this information but he did break VA policy
by downloading that information to his laptop. If you are the person that
backs up or maintains such a database can you put it on a laptop? Of course
if you have a laptop you can, you shouldn't and it is against policy but it
can be done. This person was not a normal user who just uses his computer
for e-mail, or even taking care of patients with the
VistA<http://www.hardhats.org/>,(In
no way related to Windows Vista), electronic health record system.

It is also clear that whatever his reason for having that data on the laptop
there were alternatives for him to analyze the data on a server where that
data was protected by systems that have had vulnerability assessments done
on them for years. The bottom line on security is that people are always a
weak link in any security plan, and technology alone will not solve the
problems.

Enough on that. Anyway, I really hope your project with the school district
works out, I believe that schools and other government agencies should be
using open source software wherever possible; not only because of the cost,
but also because of the advantages gained by having people able to create
better products because they can see how things work and fit together.

The VA has created an electronic health record system that is second to
none, and that is not just the opinion of people in government, but health
care providers world wide. The best part of the system is that the original
work was done by people working for the VA so the code is freely available
to any American citizen thanks to the freedom of information act. What made
this system so great is that the source code was given to VA medical centers
and the programming staff there were able to build on what was originally
sent out. These enhancements made it back into the product and made it what
it is today. Wouldn't it be great if schools used software that they could
tailor to fit their student's particular needs and those changes could be
used by other schools who had similar needs. I guess that is what open
source is all about and I really feel that it is a great fit for government
and schools.

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Received on Fri Sep 22 16:33:43 2006