The report card, released by the office of US Rep. Tom Davis, the ranking member of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, rated seven agencies as having improved from last year and six as having worsened.

Nine agencies earned failing grades, including the Department of Commerce, the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Also receiving Fs were the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Treasury, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Agriculture.

Conversely, eight agencies earned A grades, including the Department of Justice; the Agency for International Development; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Science Foundation; the Social Security Administration; the Housing and Urban Development; Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration.

The Department of Homeland Security was one of the agencies that showed marked improvement, raising its mark from a D in 2006 to a B in 2007. The Department of Energy climbed from a C- to a B+ and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) climbed from a D- to a C+.

Rep. Davis consistently has called for more oversight of agency information security practices.

“We need to do more to bring consistency to the Inspector General community regarding standards and review,” Davis said in a statement. “We need a bill with teeth and we need agencies to understand the goal is to keep information safe, not to check a statutory box.”