SITC staff understands the value of collaboration and has developed a disciplined model to help diverse stakeholders achieve common goals and leverage collective knowledge. Examples of previous initiatives include:
- Federal data exchange
- Federal-State security
- International administration
- Multijurisdictional collaboration and facilitation
- National technical advisory groups
- National program work groups
- National focus groups for Tribal systems
- State-to-State data exchange
- System integration and interoperability
Case Study
Network Security/Connectivity Issues - EPA
The basis for this SITC engagement consisted of the challenges related to a national deployment and State connectivity of the EPA Exchange Network. Significant complexity is involved in the large-scale connectivity and deployment of nodes across the national EPA Exchange Network. SITC worked with EPA to form, lead, and host the National State - EPA IT Security Challenges workgroup composed of State and Federal Environmental and State Security personnel. SITC led in determining the requirements for wide-spread deployment and implementation of the EPA Exchange Network for data exchange among States and the EPA, including connectivity issues, security requirements and agreements, and firewall issues. The target solution was delivery of a draft security component for trading partner agreements to encourage connectivity and participation and ensure acceptable security processes among the trading partners in the Data Exchange Network.
Forum Background
The ?Forum? is unique body of leading Federal EPA executives, as well as executives from State information technology (IT) areas, security areas and environmental programs, from around the country. One goal of the Forum is for the participating organizations to enhance their ability to effectively and securely share environmental data between and among the States and EPA. A second goal of the Forum is to accelerate the ability of States and EPA to better support implementation of the Exchange Network by collaboratively dealing with security challenges across the States and EPA.Profiles of Forum State Participants
Profiles of the Forum attendees at prior meetings reflect that a substantial majority of the State participants are involved in IT for their States. Approximately half of the participants focus on IT security and half on IT in general. A large majority of the participants are deeply involved in the State?s information security activities, including defining or managing the security program for the State or in implementing the security requirements on behalf of the environmental IT group.Purpose of the March Forum Meeting
The purposes of the March Forum meeting include, among others, review and discussion of the following:- Draft model security agreement
- Work products from Forum ?firewall? and ?trust? working groups
- Potential levels of security guidance for secure communications with trusted partners
- Lessons learned from EPA/State security pilot projects
- Draft security risk management template
- Relationships between the draft security agreement and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) architectural plan
- Report on the Node Security Design
- Guidance relating to how a State hooks up the Exchange Network
- Proposed next steps for the Forum
Meeting Specifics
The Forum meeting is planned for the Sheraton Capital Center Hotel in Raleigh, NC and the EPA National Computer Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. The meeting is scheduled for March 26-27, 2003. State participant travel expenses will be provided by the Forum, including travel, hotel, and per diem. The State Information Technology Consortium (SITC) will be facilitating the Forum and will be contacting your State shortly regarding participation.
