Most U.S. federal agencies -- including the Department of Homeland Security -- have failed to comply with a Dec. 31, 2009, deadline to deploy new authentication mechanisms on their Web sites that would prevent hackers from hijacking Web traffic and redirecting it to bogus sites.
Agencies were required to roll out an extra layer of security on their .gov Web sites under an Office of Management and Budget
mandate issued in August 2008, although at least one expert calls that yearend deadline "a little aggressive."