Black Hat DC: U.S. Must Consider Impact Of 'Militarization' Of Cyberspace

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.darkreading.com/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=214500702

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading
Feb 18, 2009

WASHINGTON -- BLACK HAT DC -- The United States is unprepared to respond 
to a cyber-Katrina or cyberwarfare attack and must consider three 
hot-button issues as the new administration formulates its cybersecurity 
strategy: the role of the intelligence community, cyberweapons 
deployment, and who should be in charge of the nation's response to a 
cyberattack, said cybersecurity and homeland security expert Paul Kurtz 
today during his keynote address here at Black Hat DC.

Kurtz, who worked on the Obama transition team but is not part of the 
new administration, had been mentioned as a front-runner for a possible 
cybersecurity czar position in the administration. Kurtz emphasized that 
he was not speaking on behalf of the administration here, and he would 
not discuss what recommendations he has given President Obama and his 
team.

"Who is in charge [in the event of] a cyber-Katrina?" said Kurtz, who 
served on homeland security councils for both the Clinton and Bush 
administrations and is now a security consultant with Good Harbor. "Is 
it the FCC? DHS? Commerce? The White House? No one has an answer to 
that, and that's pretty darn scary."

As the new administration fleshes out its policies for cybersecurity, 
the industry should consider a topic that historically has been "a 
little taboo." he says: "The militarization of cyberspace."

[...]


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