Opinion

Hope for a New Cybersecurity Administration

It has to get better - doesn't it? CSO Publisher Bob Bragdon looks for progress on the national cybersecurity front.

By Bob Bragdon, Publisher, CSO

February 27, 2009 — CSO —

Politically, it seems to be a time to be full of hope. Despite the slumping economy and the challenges that lie before us, hope takes on two forms for me this year:

First, I hope that the new administration in Washington, D.C., can realize more success in controlling cyber threats than the past administration did. Don't get me wrong, I'll be the last to take shots at the Bush administration's attempts to secure cyberspace and the critical infrastructure. I think that what they accomplished, in a time of challenging expectations and priorities, was remarkable. It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback and shoot holes in every initiative. Sure, I think that we've spent too much time trying to make cybersecurity, under DHS, work effectively. Sure, I think part of the problem was that cybersecurity was a hot potato that paled in comparison to the risks from a dirty bomb or other such terrorist attacks. Part of the problem is the pace at which government works. That's why I am encouraged by the CSIS Commission report, "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President." It outlines what I believe to be a viable and effective path for us to follow to address cybersecurity. That's my first hope.

My second hope is that the new administration won't screw things up too badly. We've all seen from experience the kind of hole that cyber issues can fall into. It is a difficult challenge that requires a strategy, leadership and executive buy-in. Over the years we've learned that organizations that have executive leadership for security (a CSO or CISO) are more likely to have a security strategy in place and, as a result, suffer fewer security incidents. They also have buy-in from the executive level of their organization. In this case, that buy-in would come from the president and would flow from his office down throughout the government. All the best intentions won't be worth a dime if this isn't viewed as a priority by the Oval Office. These days, the Oval Office has a lot of priorities; it's all going to come down to where this one sits in the pecking order.

Much like in Robert Frost's poem, our nation, too, sits at a divergence of two roads. One road is well traveled and follows a path that, while it has protected us against a cyber D-day and secured our critical infrastructure, has not really left us as secure as we know we should be. The other road, the one less traveled, may have great promise but we don't know where it leads. We can only hope that the new administration's choice will make us more secure in the end.

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