Government Cyber Security Priorities for 2010

Top security executives and experts stress the importance of beefing up national cyber security standards in 2010.

Stay connected: Share RSS Feed

(PRNewsChannel) / January 12, 2010 / Bedford Springs, Pa. / A keynote panel of industry security executives moderated by Christopher Garcia, Director Cyber Security and Incident Response Center, FAA, and featuring Robert Lentz, Former Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Cyber, Identity and Information Assurance, DoD, Tim Upton, Founder, President & CEO, Titus Lab, and Charles Ross, Director, Sales Engineering Public Sector, McAfee, focused on cyber security priorities for 2010 and gave the audience strategies for preemptive security measures.

"The panel agrees that 2010 is a tipping point for security, and a lot of action and focus is urgently needed," said Garcia.

"In the 60-day review, we saw that ID management, privacy and risk management are critical elements when building security architectures," said Lentz.

Ron Ross, Senior Computer Scientist, NIST, spoke about the current collaboration efforts between the defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies that are aimed at bringing together disparate security standards, guidelines, and best practices, and at creating a unified, government-wide strategy for cyber security and risk management.

"Global is the new local," said Ross.

Director of US-CERT Randy Vickers, along with the CEO of Netwitness and former Director of US-CERT Amit Yoran, shared their perspectives on cyber security threats government executives need to be aware of, warning that the sophistication and number of attacks will continue to increase, and that collaborative security efforts headed up by NIST and other agencies to share information and create common security standards are critical in helping effectively combat threats.

"Cyber security is a team effort that needs to include government, industry, intelligence, law enforcement, and the International Community," said Vickers. "As we move forward, DHS is willing to take on the challenge of finding ways to do this more efficiently and effectively."

OMB is also acknowledging a new cyber security landscape by creating a task force that is re-evaluating FISMA metrics to ensure they focus on outcomes over compliance.  A joint blog by Federal CIO Vivek Kundra and Navy CIO Drew Carey stated, “doing so will enable new and actionable insight into agencies' information and network security postures, possible vulnerabilities, and the ability to better protect our federal systems.”

GTRA research found that some of the biggest barriers executives feel they face with regard to effectively fighting cyber security include standardization, identity management, and cloud computing security. There are several security initiatives underway government-wide, including focusing on cyber security. This includes the National Leap Year project, which aims at strategies that will make huge leaps in progress against cyber security versus incremental progress, the search for the first ever “Cyber Czar,” who will in effect be the first Chief Information Security Officer for the entire country, and projects focused on protecting the national GRID.

President Obama officially announced his cyber security strategy, further highlighting the importance this administration places on technology and its understanding of the importance of cyber security and the fact that cyber threats are increasing in frequency and sophistication.

"The discussions at the GTRA Council Meeting touched on common themes of trust, shared responsibilities, and standardization,"said Parham Eftekhari, Research Director, GTRA. "Cyber Terrorists, both domestic and international, are well-organized, and work together to create havoc on our systems. This means to win we have to be more organized and collaborative in our efforts than the enemy."

About GTRA: GTRA brings together executive-level government technology CXO’s in Security, Enterprise Architecture, Virtualization, Green IT and Health IT leaders to collaborate, strategize and create innovative solutions.  The semi-annual GTRA Symposiums address the topics identified through research with the government Council members and industry experts. By sharing best practices and lessons learned, knowledge is exchanged in a peer-to-peer forum, resulting in actionable government-wide strategic plans and cutting-edge solutions.  Through a unique collaborative methodology, GTRA is revolutionizing the way government does business!

Contact:
Deborah Kay
GTRA
312-399-7341

Source: gtra.org

This press release was sent by the press release distribution service PRNewsChannel. Follow on Twitter, Friend on Facebook, Connect on Linkedin.