White House Review of U.S. Cybersecurity Findings

In February President Barack Obama directed the National Security Council and the Dept. of Homeland security to assess the nation’s stance in cyberspace with special attention to cybersecurity.  The NSC and DHS have recommended:

• The establishment of a national cybersecurity official and office which would review laws and practices and provide leadership tying national, state and local efforts more closely together.
• National focus on a technologically advanced workforce – similar to the nation’s efforts at greater math and science proficiency during the 1960s.
• Calls for expanding the federal government’s own IT workforce and capabilities especially with regard to security and implementing best practices across the government enterprise.
• Expanded partnering among government, private sector and U.S. allies.
• Greater federal incident response focus and better communication and integration of incident response efforts across the federal enterprise.
• Harness the benefits of innovation to address cybersecurity concerns, including work with the private sector to define performance and security objectives for future infrastructure, linking research and development to infrastructure development and expanding coordination of government, industry, and academic research efforts.
• More focus on supply chain and TCOM security.