The federal government needs to assess its IT infrastructure and address cybersecurity, modernization and assessment reform as equal, intertwined priorities, suggests the IT Alliance for Public Sector, a division of advocacy and policy organization for the Information Technology Industry Council.

In a letter sent to President-elect Donald Trump, ITAPS declares that its membership — which includes hardware, software, services and solutions companies — is dedicated to working with the new administration to improve government operations and efficiency and reduce wasteful spending on aging inventory. ITAPS hopes that a review of procurement regulations and workaround programs (Digital Services, 18F, DIUx, etc.) will ease barriers to acquiring commercial technologies.

“The federal government spent $80 billion on IT systems last year. Shockingly, 80 percent was spent maintaining costly, vulnerable IT systems that many American taxpayers would expect to see in a Smithsonian collection,” said ITAPS Senior Vice President for Public Sector Trey Hodgkins, who signed the letter to Trump.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/tech-group-calls-on-trump-to-assess-it-vulnerabilities-lower-acquisition-barriers

See the full set of ITIC’s recommendations here: http://www.itic.org/dotAsset/b/b/bb2f1b1e-2a9a-4a8a-ad9a-7aa41a046e3d.pdf