Obama Administration Cybersecurity Plan Announced

Just to add to this post - the shortlist of candidates to take the cyber-czar position have been announced.

So at RSA we all knew it was coming. And then, BAM!! There it is smacking us in the face with all its might...the Obama Administration Cybersecurity Plan. So, are we all supposed to think that we’ll all be a little more safe from the universe of cyber criminals who stalk consumers and organizations everyday?

Well, no, but there actually, maybe, could be, possibly...hope. What the plan outlines, which is probably most important, is the collaboration between the federal and the private sectors. This has long been a difficult place to seek alignment of ideals, concepts and whoa, maybe technology?

Forrester’s Andy Jaquith has an excellent synopsis of the plan’s announcement. What Jaquith points out is that FISMA policies and regulations are in many ways inadequate. (not just because it doesn’t explicitly call out the database either) But that the focus on compliance has really hampered the effectiveness of these guidelines, based on recent attacks on government systems like FAA.

But the plan is much more about elevating the level of importance of cybersecurity, and essentially overhauling who is responsible and give someone the authority to make the changes necessary to enforce new security standards.

What many pundits of the plan have argued might be a stumbling block is that the new cybersecurity czar who’s yet to be named officially has to report to two agencies - the National Security Council and National Economic Council.

With both agencies pushing dual agendas that ultimately align in many respects, progress is likely, based on the state of the economy and the havoc that massive data attacks can wreak on individuals and organizations.

As the plan outlines the need for increased education, you tend to scratch your head…but with incentives for private sector innovation, this is where the plan gets serious because we all know that innovation is driven out of the private sector – and this helps everyone.

You’ll see that a number of media outlets covering the announcement of the plan looked to AppSec, not surprisingly, for some valuable commentary, including USA Today and New England Cable News. AppSec will continue to support the government's efforts in their acknowledgement of the state of cybersecurity...