November 25, 2014
Daniel: Obama Will Likely Enact Panel’s Advice On Blunting Cyber Risks
President Obama will likely implement recommendations from a presidential advisory panel aimed at improving planning for a worst-case cyber attack on the country and averting risks in the emerging “Internet of Things,” said White House Cyber security Coordinator Michael Daniel.
“I think that we’re very supportive and interested in the input,” Daniel told Inside Cyber security after Wednesday’s meeting of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
The panel approved two reports at the meeting. One urges Obama to convene representatives from critical information and communications technology providers and U.S. national security organizations to prepare the United States to manage a cyber attack of national significance.
Although government and industry are continuing to develop ways to share cyber-threat data, “there exists no effective methodology that currently supports the rapid mobilization and coordination of critical commercial sector assets to respond to a large-scale incident of national security concern,” the report states
The other study concludes the federal government must rush to address cyber security gaps created by the Internet of Things before they become long-term, intractable problems.
“There is a small – and rapidly closing – window to ensure that [the Internet of Things] is adopted in a way that maximizes security and minimizes risk,” the report states. “If the country fails to do so, it will be coping with the consequences for generations.”
“These are big, meaty, weighty topics that are not simple and easy,” Daniel said. The work of this particular advisory committee has over time proven very valuable to the White House, he said
“These reports often serve as the kernels of really good ideas and then we take them and figure out a way to implement them that actually works on the government side,” Daniel said.
“So I think that there’s a very high likelihood that even if they don’t get implemented in exactly the form that they are written in, that the concepts and ideas behind them are things that we will pursue,” he said.
Daniel said Suzanne Spaulding, the Department of Homeland Security’s under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, would likely pen a memo formally transmitting the reports to the White House.
But officials are already working on putting some of the recommendations into practice, he said. The administration is working to increase the breadth and depth of its cooperation with the private sector in a number of different areas, he said.
One of the recommendations calls for the Commerce Department to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a definition of the Internet of Things that departments and agencies can use during related assessments. A NIST working group recently began coordinating the development of a security definition for the Internet of Things. – Christopher J. Castelli (ccastelli@iwpnews.com)
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