Obama On Cybersecurity: We're Not That Prepared
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
The still-to-be-named coordinator will oversee a new bureaucracy tasked with digital infrastructure protection, which had previously been handled by the Department of Homeland Security.
"We will ensure that these networks are secure, trustworthy and resilient," Mr. Obama said. "We will deter, prevent, detect, and defend against attacks and recover quickly from any disruptions or damage."
Obama's announcement, which was expected, came as the president released the outcome of a 60-day review that sought to rethink how the federal government should address cybersecurity. Business groups had sought to raise cybersecurity's profile in the administration but remained wary about regulatory mandates from Washington; security hawks would prefer the new bureaucracy to have more authority over the private sector.
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The final report represents a political compromise. It suggests "intrusion detection and prevention systems" and "warning of cyber intrusions and attacks," while stressing that collaboration with privacy groups and industry is vital. New laws compelling companies to share more information with the federal government about intrusions may be necessary, it says, but only "as a last resort."
During his remarks in the White House's East Room on Friday, Mr. Obama also seemed to seek a balance between warning of the dangers of terrorists or other miscreants using the Internet and saying the government will not go too far.
"Our pursuit of cybersecurity will not -- I repeat, will not include -- monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic," he said.
The report also goes out of its way to recognize the civil liberties concerns that could arise by a greater focus on private networks: the word "privacy" appears at least 69 times in the document.
In a cybersecurity "crisis," the plan is for the coordinator to become the "White House action officer for cyber incident response." That's a similar role to the White House officials who help to monitor terrorist attacks or natural disasters. (The new coordinator's fiefdom will be shared between the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.)
While there has been some private grumbling that the new coordinator will not report directly to the president -- a prized symbol of access in Washington circles -- reaction to the administration's announcement was generally positive.
Senators John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, members of the Commerce and Intelligence committees, said in a statement that "no other president in American history has elevated this issue to that level and we thank (Obama) for his leadership."
The Center for Democracy and Technology said it "is evident that the report's authors listened to the concerns of privacy and civil liberties groups."
The origin of many of the Feds' cybersecurity headaches can be traced back to the process that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security nearly seven years ago. Politicians in Washington, D.C. decided to glue together a medley of federal agencies to create a massive bureaucracy that would, as one of its new goals, provide a better focus on cybersecurity.
"The department will gather and focus all our efforts to face the challenge of cyberterrorism," President Bush said when signing the 500-or-so-page bill into law in November 2002. "This department will be charged with encouraging research on new technologies that can detect these threats in time to prevent an attack."
Some tasks might benefit from centralization in one of the world's largest bureaucracies. But it soon became evident that cybersecurity was not one of them. By 2005, government auditors concluded that the department failed to live up to its cybersecurity responsibilities and may be "unprepared" for emergencies.
As recently as last fall, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said his agency needed to develop a plan to respond to a "cybercrisis."
That led some outside groups to argue that cybersecurity efforts should be taken over by the National Security Agency, which already is responsible for protecting government computers through its "information assurance" arm, or perhaps the White House staff.
Lending unusual spice to what would normally be a quiet, internecine power struggle was March's resignation of Rod Beckstrom, director of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center. In his farewell letter, Beckstrom blasted what he said was an NSA power grab, saying the secretive military agency "effectively controls DHS cyber efforts through detailees, technology insertions."
The week before Beckstrom's resignation, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair suggested to a House committee that the NSA was ready for the job, saying "there are some wizards out there at Fort Meade." But a few weeks later, after a congressional hearing that was hardly enthusiastic about the idea, NSA director Keith Alexander denied his agency had any interest in the job.
In February, Mr. Obama ordered a 60-day review of the federal government's cybersecurity efforts, and appointed Hathaway -- who had worked for the director of national intelligence in the Bush administration -- to lead it.
In addition, the New York Times reported on Friday that the Pentagon is preparing a new military command for cyberspace that would operate in parallel with the civilian effort that Mr. Obama is expected to announce. He is "expected to sign a classified order in coming weeks that will create the military cybercommand" and recognize "that the United States already has a growing number of computer weapons in its arsenal and must prepare strategies for their use," the newspaper said.
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Obama was a bigtime supporter of FISA for that very reason! Thanks for pointing it out alph!!!!
Hence all the Windows IT professionals making a series of "typical system restore disks" to restore the machines of whatever user got mauled, whereas MacOS can do that, OR, if you don't want to bother with that, boot every machine on the network from a single network boot source that contains the optimal code for all machines, relegating the local hard drive to cache and scratch storage and further putting barriers between your corporate firewall and your data.
Then again, Obama still uses his Crackberry, even if its been "enhanced" by the Treasury Department, and that "Windows friendly" device might just some day be his undoing if he passes too close to someone with the tools to get into its network interfaces..
Not that there's anything sensitive from a national security standpoint allowed on the thing anyway. Whereas the Treasury Department may be obliging, the department of defense only wants national security information computers they designed using software they wrote whose network protocols are so obscure that the fact that they're classified is just adding another layer on the cake.
Want cyber security in the United States? Cut all Windows versions prior to WinXP SP3 and all versions of Mac OS X 10.3 off at the first router who can figure out. Of course, that isn't practical, so maybe what we need is a national standard for OS writers and hardware OEM's for basic system security. e.g. can be compromised only if the user is VERY stupid.
Like OS X, but built even a bit MORE paranoid by default. (OS X ships with its firewall DOWN).
"I have never witnessed such sheer stupidity amongst a group of people."
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Stuart, apparently you weren't in Germany in the 1930s
;-)
Keep up the good work, and don't let stress grind you down.
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It's been 4 whole months and Obama hasn't taken your guns away. Maybe Rush is wrong after all!