Panel must narrow cybersecurity scope
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/150696-1.html
By Jason Miller
FCW.com
November 5, 2007
A new blue-ribbon panel that will develop cybersecurity recommendations
for the next president faces a compressed schedule and the challenge of
agreeing on a cybersecurity agenda that it wants the next administration
to address.
Experts say cyberthreats from terrorists, organized crime and other
countries lack a common thread and instead stem from a variety of
vulnerabilities, including insufficient training, technology weaknesses
and a culture of Internet use that puts the public and private sector at
risk. For those reasons, the most obvious recommendation for improving
basic cyberdefenses is the hardest to accomplish, said Glenn Schlarman,
former branch chief at the Office of Information Policy and Technology
at the Office of Management and Budget.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) organized the
Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency and outlined its
objectives at an Oct. 31 briefing.
“We want to give the next administration new ideas or policies that they
can pick up and run with,” said Jim Lewis, director of CSIS’ technology
and public policy program. “This is a threat that is growing and putting
our critical infrastructure and financial systems in peril. People are
attacking the U.S. in better and smarter ways, and we need to become
better and smarter to deal with them.