NASA's CIO Is Officially Angry About Her Commuter Bus Website (Update)
Keith’s 4:38 pm update: As it happens this commuter bus tweet was not even made by Renee Wynn but rather by someone else who has access to the @NASACIO Twitter account (even though the face on the Twitter page is Renee Wynn’s). This error went unnoticed for more than 5 hours hours until NASAWatch pointed it out. And it took another 5 hours before an indirect message was sent to me explaining what had happened.
To be certain this was an innocuous tweet made by a frustrated DC commuter. But this Twitter account belongs to the NASA CIO – the Chief Information Officer. They are in charge of oversight for all NASA communications and IT. This is troubling to say the least given that use of this account is apparently not monitored by anyone at the NASA CIO organization; that this account has been used by CIO staff (who should know something about the whole IT thing) for things that are blatantly personal and utterly inappropriate; and that the organization who is responsible for proper use of IT at NASA cannot even admit their own mistakes – yet they will hound others at NASA who make them. You can hardly blame people at NASA for ignoring the CIO organization when they do things like this.
Keith’s 1:51 pm update: The tweet has been deleted. It used to say “Talk about burying the lead–I had to click through three pages on the PRTC / OmniRide website to even know there was a bus driver strike and what to do about it. Nothing on their Facebook page. Not cool people… https://t.co/PzvAVSRfwO — NASA OCIO (@NASAcio) August 5, 2019″ Luckily I employed another advanced Internet concept that the CIO is seemingly unaware of: a screen grab. FWIW I actually first noticed this @NASACIO tweet at 7:27 am. It was only after it was mentioned on NASAWatch hours later that it was pulled down. So much for the notion that the NASA CIO pays a lot of attention to social media.
Keith’s original 12:22 pm note: Kinda funny that NASA CIO Renee Wynn uses her official Twitter account to complain about a bus schedule. Yet when it comes to complying with government guidance on cybersecurity Wynn’s office refuses to reply to all media inquiries and routinely gets failing scores on her office’s progress from Congres. Now, Wynn’s office is co-charted by the NASA Administrator to fix the inefficiencies and redundancies within NASA’s internet presence – something the the current CIO has utterly ignored through her time at NASA. Lets hope that she starts to pay the same amount of time looking at NASA websites as she pays to the design of her commuter bus’ website. Also, FWIW, if you used #omniride and #PTRC hashtags in your tweet they might actually see your complaint a little more easily. Its one of these Internet tricks you are apparently unaware of.
Oh yes the phrase is “burying the lede” not “lead”. Just sayin’.
– NASA Continues To Flunk Basic IT and Cybersecurity Rankings, earlier post
– Overhauling NASA’s Tangled Internet Presence, earlier post
– NASA Needs A New Chief Information Officer, earlier post
– NASA CIO Misses Little Things That Could Cause Big Problems, earlier post
– NASA OIG Finds Pervasive Problems With JPL Cybersecurity, earlier post
At least it ain’t four years late and billions over budget.
Unfortunately that isn’t quite true. Poor IT support, pointless rules on the subject, and a long list of other bureaucratic issues do affect the cost of missions. No one of those things adds much, but overall the costs pile up. I think a particular mission ends up being a billion dollars over budget because of sum total of those little (or big) inefficiencies.
Do I think the NASA OIG would do anything about this? Highly unlikely.
I think it is widely known that the NASA CIO is mostly useless.
Totally agree.
Useless could be the right word. But there are lots of things tied up with policies and bureaucracy which are almost impossible to change. So there is useless due to having her hands tied, useless do to incompetence and useless due to being incapable of fixing inherent problems with the system (which might or might not be another flavor of incompetence.) NASA IT is certainly a mess, but I don’t know enough to say who is responsible.
Who’s responsible for the no email access for personal devices policy? I used to read and reply to email during all waking hours, seven days a week. Not anymore! It’s strictly 9-to-5 on weekdays from now on due to NASA IT policy.
And, as I understand it, you also not [edit: I left out the “not”. Sorry.] supposed to forward or copy work email to a personal account (which you could check however and where ever you liked.)
But I can see many managers having no problems with this policy. If they were given a list of potential measures to improve IT security, I can see this one getting approved. First of all, there is the “people like me” assumption many people make. To someone who doesn’t check email from home, and/or who thinks it’s best to keep their work and personal lives separate, it might never occur to them that this policy would inconvenience anyone.
Some managers really don’t like the idea of people working from home. This policy more-or-less bans that, and all in the name of something that sounds good and is hard for others to object to.
And, to be blunt, it’s financially in the interest of the NASA centers. It justifies shifting as much work as possible in house. With the time zone differences, a collaboration between institutions on the East and West coasts probably isn’t practical. An email exchange which might only take half an hour is transformed into an over-night delay while waiting for a reply.
I guess that’s all pretty cynical. But I’m not surprised by IT people coming up with some stupid ideas. Everyone does. In fact, the original advocate of randomly generated account names and passwords has recently said he’s changed his mind and that the whole idea causes more harm than good. But the balance between improved security, the need for improved security, and the inefficiencies and inconveniences a particular measure would cause? Those are management decisions, not IT decisions.
Is anyone aware of the fact that between Spring of 2017 and Summer 2018, that the NASA CIO, former Chief Information Security Officer, Janette Hana Ruiz were under a criminal indictment and investigation for allegedly steering contracts to a mutual friend’s business? Hana Ruiz left the position after only eight months on the job. Wynn slid by under the cloak of Administrator change and thus NASA leaders ultimately buried the issue. Time to FOIA the facts..
Diversity is our strength! Snark.