A year can make a big difference in technology – and in politics. A year ago, the federal government was failing badly at establishing a leadership position in cybersecurity. Interim cybersecurity czar Melissa Hathaway had resigned amid delays to appoint a full-time federal director. The politicians were thinking about anything but the defense of our nation’s computing infrastructure. And the attacks kept rolling in.
Fortunately, things for the good guys have improved. We’ve got a veteran in Howard Schmidt firmly established in the federal cybersecurity leadership role. And, more importantly, the legislators are working hard to give him and other security leaders within the government enough authority, tools and cash to actually make a difference in the fight for digital ground.
I’ve long been an advocate of establishing cybersecurity laws that have teeth and authority to prevent and deter attacks to our infrastructure. I believe that the drafts that we’re seeing of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 are a good first effort from legislators in order to do that.
Read the rest of “Legislation a good first step to cybersecurity leadership” in SC Magazine.
[...] Here’s my take: This is a complex problem. In the absence of a revised legal framework to protect the business interests of ISPs whose actions could raise the ire of intellectual property (IP) owners and privacy advocates, the “kill switch” is, currently, the only weapon available to mitigate a cyber-attack. Given that offending powerful intellectual property rights owners or the ACLU provides an express track to political demise, little else of value has been suggested. See my reaction to the initial cyber-security legislation proposed this summer: CyberSecurity Legislation is a Good First Step. [...]