$6 billion cybermonitoring initiative victim of shutdown

As a result of the government shutdown, the Obama administration has stopped orders for a $6 billion network threat-surveillance system scheduled to be deployed governmentwide, a key project contractor said, according to NextGov. Once the program is deployed, central "dashboard" displays will show the Homeland Security Department "what's going on across all the civilian agencies," he said. "In the meantime, IT managers have to remain especially vigilant." The General Service Administration's shutdown plans for this week state the department "will not accept new orders for workspace, products, or services except when they are needed by the ordering agency to support excepted or exempt activities," which means health information at the VA, HHS and CMS could be left vulnerable. Article