44th Presidency Cybersecurity efforts
Chopra is worth Watching as New CTO
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009In his weekly radio address, President Obama announced that he has appointed Aneesh Chopra as the country’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Chopra will be working closely with the nation’s first CIO, Vivek Kundra, to continue to enhance information security and privacy across the federal government, direct policy, oversee federal technology spending, and oversee government enterprise [...]
Cybersecurity band aid? New CAG audit guidelines don’t replace FISMA
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009This week we heard about CAG, the Consensus Audit Guidelines, and people have been asking us how this relates to FISMA and NIST. The CAG is not meant to be a comprehensive information security fix. This list of twenty control objectives is prioritized based on the results of the Commision on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency and [...]
“A Complete Revolution in Federal Cybersecurity”
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009This blog has previously discussed the CSIS Commission report on cybersecurity, and the one of the next steps towards federal cybersecurity was announced yesterday. A consortium of US federal agencies has drawn up a list of critical security controls they hope will serve as a gold standard for cybersecurity. The Consensus Audit Guidelines (CAG) list [...]
Hathaway to Head CyberSecurity Efforts
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009Cyber gossip…
A story posted online yesterday by The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed government sources, said that President Obama is expected to name Melissa Hathaway to head a new White House office of cybersecurity. “Ms. Hathaway helped develop a Bush administration cybersecurity initiative aimed at better securing federal systems and critical-infrastructure networks against online threats.
The [...]
Cyber Security Social Contract from the Internet Security Alliance
Monday, December 15th, 2008If you are an Info Sec professional and you are not familiar with the Internet Security Alliance (ISA), you need to check them out. These are fresh observations on how to begin to fix the current state of cyber insecurity.This non profit trade organization is a collaboration between the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), and Carnegie [...]
Bailout for Information Security?
Sunday, December 14th, 2008George Hulme at Information Week opines on President-Elect Obama and HHS Secretary Daschle proposal for a health data infrastructure. Hulme articulates the fears of many info sec professionals: “Do you see that? Hospitals interconnected on the Internet. That’s a long-winded way to spell RISK. Because, when you airdrop a crate of technology on a segment [...]
Healthcare IT Reform with Secretary Daschle?
Sunday, December 14th, 2008Senator Tom Daschle was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services by President-Elect Barack Obama last month. Even if you are a technology geek who doesn’t care for politics, it is important to note that Daschle has advocated expanding health information technology as part of a comprehensive health reform program.
In his book, “Critical: What We [...]
National Office of Cyberspace
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008A wide range of legislators and security experts serving on The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency recommended that a new office in the Executive Office of the President be created. This could mean that ultimate authority would reside Executive Office of the President, and government agencies [...]