A White House progress report tells of U.S. efforts to secure critical networks against cyber-attack and mentions some things to come.
A
cyber-security
progress report from the White House July 14 shed some light on the
government's cyber-security efforts and what officials have planned for the
future.
President Obama released the results of a 60-day cyber-security review in
May 2009 and declared cyber-security a national security priority. Since that
time, the president has established the position of cyber-security coordinator
now occupied by Howard Schmidt, the U.S. Cyber Command has become a reality and
the federal government has revealed draft plans for a new
identity
management system for the Internet.
In addition to talking about the past, the report also said officials are
developing a National Cyber Incident Response Plan to be tested in September as
part of the Cyber Storm III exercise. The plan is meant to ensure a coordinated
national response in the event of a "significant cyber-incident" and
will be updated following the results of Cyber Storm III.
In addition, the National Security Staff Cyber-security Directorate is
preparing an
updated
national strategy to further implementation of the plan outlined by the cyber-space
policy review.
"President Obama has recognized that the 'cyber-threat is one of the
most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation' and
'America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on
cyber-security,'"
Schmidt
noted in a blog post July 14.
According to the report, new cyber-security centers are "integrating
and providing real-time situational awareness to [aid in] combating cyber-threats."
"DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has established the National
Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), integrating and
eventually synchronizing the work of existing cyber- and communication incident
response mechanisms into a unified operations center," the report stated.
"DHS also opened the Industrial Control System-Computer Emergency Response
Team facility to address cyber-security threats to critical infrastructure
control systems."
The report also highlighted a growing level of cooperation between the
private and public sectors, from creating checklists to identify
vulnerabilities in smartphones to collaborating to enhance the security of
industrial control systems. In addition, the government has been working with
businesses to fight cyber-crime.
"The United States Government and the private sector are working to
educate businesses in reducing and mitigating their financial risk from
cyber-threats," the report said. "The FBI collaborated with the
Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis
Center to issue a timely,
ground-breaking joint publication on cyber-threats and mitigation strategies
involving Automated Clearing House transactions."
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