Think tank, lawmakers create U.S. cybersecurity commission
A Washington, D.C., think tank has launched a cybersecurity commission full
of top experts in the field, with the goal of creating a list of recommendations
for the next U.S. president.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
wants the commission to come up with a list of recommendations that the new
president who takes office in January 2009 "can pick up and run with right
away," said James Lewis, director of the CSIS Technology and Public Policy
Program. The commission, made up of 32 cybersecurity experts, plans to finish
its work by the end of 2008.
Co-chairmen of the commission are retired Admiral Bobby Inman, former director
of the U.S. National Security Agency; Scott Charney, corporate vice president
for trustworthy computing at Microsoft; U.S. Representative Jim Langevin, a
Rhode Island Democrat and chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on
Emerging Threats, Cyber Security and Science and Technology; and Representative
Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee.
Cyberthreats against the U.S. are growing, and it's important for Congress
and the next president to take action, Langevin said. In the past year, his
committee has investigated hundreds of cyberbreaches within the U.S. government.
Langevin remains concerned about U.S. government networks, he said. The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security reported 844 cybersecurity incidents in fiscal
years 2005 and 2006, he noted.
When the lead agency for protecting the U.S. against cyberattacks has hundreds
of vulnerabilities, "we've clearly reached an unacceptable situation,"
Langevin said.
The commission will expect action on its recommendations, added McCaul. He
promised to push the recommendations in the cybersecurity subcommittee.
"The time is now for action," he said. "For any [presidential]
administration, it'd be unwise to ignore that."
Among the members of the committee are three former cybersecurity directors
at the White House Office of Management and Budget; former Federal Trade Commission
member Orson Swindle; former DHS assistant secretary for cybersecurity Amit
Yoran; former head of the U.S. Department of Justice computer crimes division
Marty Stansell-Gamm; and executives with Oracle, EMC, Internet Security Systems
and Verizon Communications.
IDG News Service
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