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White House calls for coordinated cyber-security response


By David Worthington
June 1, 2009 — 
U.S. President Barack Obama has made digital infrastructure protection a national priority. The White House released last Friday a 60-day review that recommended how the federal government should address security matters going forward. Privacy was given top billing in the report.

As a consequence of the report's findings, a position is being created for a national cyber-security coordinator working inside the White House staff. Candidates are still being taken under consideration, the White House says. Cyber security was previously the domain of the Department of Homeland Security.

The report, titled "Cyberspace Policy Review: Assuring a Trusted and Resilient Information and Communications Infrastructure," concludes that the federal government needs to increase investment in achieving security and resiliency in information and communications infrastructures; a public/private partnership to coordinate responses to cyber attacks; international cooperation to mitigate security risks; as well as raising the public's awareness about the state of infrastructure security.

It also stated that new laws and mandates might be necessary to bolster security, but it expressed the White House's view that new regulation would only be taken up if it became absolutely necessary.

While the administration is advocating a broadened government role, the word "privacy" appears in the report no less than 60 times to curtail fears that the government could hold sway over private networks. "Our pursuit of cyber security will not—I repeat, will not—include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic," Obama said during a press conference in the White House's East Room.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-profit public interest organization, said that it "is evident that the report's authors listened to the concerns of privacy and civil liberties groups." However, a cyber-security “czar” "could easily morph into a central figure in the drive to regulate private networks, rather than simply focus on government modernization," cautioned Wayne Crews, vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian public interest group.

The President called for the U.S. to ensure that networks are "secure, trustworthy and resilient," and stated that the government's goal was to, "deter, prevent, detect and defend against attacks, and recover quickly from any disruptions or damage."

The security initiative received bipartisan backing from Sens. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who released a joint statement praising the President for his leadership in elevating the issue to a high level. The statement noted that no other President had taken that step.

In April, the senators introduced a cyber-security bill that they maintained would "[evolve] the relationship between government and the private sector on cyber security." The bill called for a national cyber-security advisor within the White House.

"I don't know about the security czar idea, but I can see why he went that way. These cross-agency czars tend not to get much done," said Rex Black, president of Rex Black Consulting Services. "However, if Obama had put this in the Department of Commerce, the intelligence people would go nuts; if he'd put it in the military, the branches would argue about which branch should get it, etc."

Some security experts welcomed the President's commitment to security. "It's certainly an important thing. I was planning to write his office a letter today offering my help if they want it. I did that before with Bush, but never even got a response to the letter," said Black.

"We are locked in an escalating but often hidden conflict in cyberspace, as cyber attacks steadily grow in sophistication and target critical infrastructures and sensitive data," said Scott Charney, corporate vice president at Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft, on his blog.

"According to Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report, 40% of attacks in 2008 were considered 'moderately complex;' less than 20% earned that descriptor in 2003. Addressing these attacks and securing cyberspace is going to require a comprehensive and coordinated national strategy, and the 60-day review provides a baseline to inform its development."

"We are encouraged that President Obama has put cyber security at such a high priority at such an early time in his administration," said Michael Liacko, executive vice president of Integrity Global Security, a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Hills Software. "Having the President put a stake in the ground brings credibility to a very serious problem," he added.

Green Hills produces the Integrity-178B operating system, the only operating system to date that has obtained Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 6+ from the National Information Assurance Partnership, an initiative operated by the National Security Agency. EAL has seven assurance levels, with EAL7 being the most secure.

In April, former federal security officials told CNN that foreign governments had breached the U.S. electricity grid and were potentially able to disrupt service or damage equipment.

Malicious code was also uncovered in the computer systems of financial services companies, oil and gas distributors, and telecommunications companies, according to CNN's report.

During his press conference on Friday, Obama divulged that his presidential campaign's computers had been breached before he was elected President.

The Internet is a potential "weapon of mass disruption," Liacko said. "This is a real problem that needs to be dealt with now, not later."


Related Search Term(s): security


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