Today, President Obama made cyber-security a top priority for the United States when he said that the U.S. has reached a "transformational moment" because computers are attacked and probed millions of times a day. Shortly, he will be choosing a "cyber czar" to press for action with government agencies and private industry. At a press conference, flanked by government officials and corporate executives, President Obama said "It’s now clear this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation[…]We’re not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country." The President also assured the business community that the government will not dictate how private industry should tighten digital defenses, and he made it clear that the new cyber security effort will not involve any monitoring of private networks or individual e-mail accounts. The Internet, he said, should remain open and free.
This is a red letter date, not only in U.S. history, but in security. Far too long, security professionals have said that no one has heard their desparate pleas for help in addressing this pandemic disease. By making cyber-security a priority, we can now begin to answer that all illusive question of "what is the standard for safeguarding mission-critical data?" Based on the comments of the President, I am a little concerned that there is too much focus on technology, and not enough on people and the systematic processes that go into safeguarding data. Technology works, but it is absolutely a futile effort to pour millions of dollars into "keeping pace with technology", without some sort of set of policies and enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that the technology is fully utilized and realized. In my opinion, that is where an equal amount of the focus should be, especially since technologies like RFID and cloud computing are becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives.
To read the entire article, please click here: Obama Setting Up Better Security For Computers