BSA Proposes Cybersecurity Agency

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Tue Jul 2 11:51:47 EDT 2002


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9558-2002Jul1?language=printer

washingtonpost.com

Alliance Proposes Cybersecurity Agency

Gail Repsher Emery
Washington Technology Staff Writer
Monday, July 1, 2002; 3:38 PM

A cybersecurity agency should be created in the proposed Department of
Homeland Security, the Business Software Alliance said.

The cybersecurity agency would ensure that significant attention and
resources are focused on protecting the nation's public and private
information infrastructures, the alliance said in a June 28 letter to Rep.
Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on
technology and procurement policy.

"As you know, strengthening cybersecurity requires analytical and
technological capabilities that are related to, but also distinct from,
traditional intelligence gathering and physical security functions. For
example, federal efforts to strengthen cybersecurity will continue to
require the strong participation of private industry, which owns 90 percent
of the critical infrastructures in question and which developed the very
technologies we are seeking to protect. The unique nature of the
cybersecurity challenge, thus, requires that a separate coordinating body
exist within DHS," wrote Robert Holleyman, BSA president and chief
executive officer.

In its letter to Davis, the alliance also advocated that two bills
sponsored by Davis be attached to legislation authorizing the Department of
Homeland Security.

H.R. 2435, the Cyber Security Information Act, would make it easier for
government and industry to share information about security breaches by
allowing an exemption from disclosure under Freedom of Information Act
requests. An antitrust exemption would also make it easier for
private-sector firms to share information.

H.R. 3844, the Federal Information Security Management Act, would
permanently reauthorize the Government Information Security Reform Act of
2000 and beef it up by eliminating waivers to its requirements. GISRA
requires agencies to assess the security of their IT systems and include
risk assessments and security needs in budget requests.

© 2002 Washington Technology


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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