DHS Slams Unisys

I read an interesting article today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092301471.html?referrer=emailarticle

This really hit home because a little over a year ago I was consistently called by Unisys and its sub-contractors to work there. At the time both myself and my friends knew this contract was a disaster, however even I didn't see this coming.

I feel that this highlights two failures. One, the contractor not taking the contract seriously and two, the government agency not fully knowing what it's threats really are. The main problem here is the blind, hiring the ignorant. Unisys is not fully to blame here, they have a long standing reputation of achieving the mediocre on their contracts, and DHS should have taken this into account, but they didn't. They most likely picked the contract that came in the cheapest, and that is what they got.

I hope this incident leads to a couple of things. Contractors taking the tasking of protecting an agencies IT assets more seriously, basing success on reality rather than on paper and Government agencies understanding what they are up against, and selecting contractors based on performance rather than $$.