Obama Announces Strategy to Thwart Cyber AttacksMay 29, 2009

 

cyber center

The White House will lead the effort to "deter, prevent, detect and defend" against cyber attacks, President Obama announced recently.

The President underscored that he would prevent the federal government from "regular" monitoring of private-sector networks and Internet traffic.

The new government effort to counter the growing number of security threats while promising to protect Americans' privacy – is a sensitive subject after the controversial Bush years in which the federal government wiretapped without warrants, according to an article in The New York Times.

Obama's announcement did not, however, provide specific information about how the cyber defense strategy would achieve its practical goals. It also did not fully address how the effort would deal with the ongoing turf battle between various agencies like the Pentagon, the National Security Agency, the Homeland Security Department and others.

The Times reported that the White House approach seems to incorporate a "cyber security coordinator" over all of those agencies. The President did not name who would hold that position. But he did make it clear that the new coordinator would have "regular access" to the President.

Computer security experts hoped that Obama's announcement would be a turning point in the country's mostly unsuccessful effort to turn back the cyber crime epidemic. They noted that success would depend on whom he would appoint as the cyber security coordinator.

James A. Lewis, a director at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington a public policy research institution, said that it would be a difficult position to fill.

"There aren't a lot of people who have the policy and the strategy skills, and the technological knowledge to carry this out," Lewis told the Times. "If you're talking about missiles and space, there are a lot of people who know policy and technology, but in cyber [security] it's such a new field we're talking about a really small gene pool."

While Obama did not reveal any details about expanding the military's cyber offensive capabilities, senior officials told The Times that the Pentagon planned to set up a new cyber command to organize and train for digital war, and to oversee offensive and defensive operations.

(U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo (released))