Cybersecurity Battles Loom For New Administration

A report released today argues that the U.S. is losing ground in the cybersecurity war. Reversing that trend will be a major challenge for the new administration -- for whom the report was prepared.Arguing that securing cyberspace is a challenge on the order of global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, the Center For Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) paints a grim picture of our current national cyber-posture.

Working from the premise that intrusions, penetrations and data-thefts have been severely underestimated, the CSIS report calls for a consistent national cybsecurity policy aimed at both securing cyberspace and establishing that security as an ongoing national security priority.

All well and good (and long overdue: previous administrations haven't had such detailed advance consideration of cyber-issues.)

But as the report itself points out, cyberspace differs in the breadth of its constituency: "privacy, law enforcement, business, technology, and national security" are all cited as having a voice (and some vested interest) in how the national policy is designed, implemented and deployed.

Let's hope small and midsized businesses are represented in the discussions and developments ahead: we've seen too many "business initiatives" on various fronts that have turned out to be enterprise-only initiatives.

Cyber-security policy needs to be aggressive and thorough, but also sane and workable for all businesses and institutions, not just bigbiz and big-gov.

The complete "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency" report can be downloaded here.