On cyber defense, U.S. ‘stuck at the starting line'

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/241/3110944/On-cyber-defense-US-stuck-at-the-starting-line

By Jared Serbu
Federal News Radio
11/8/2012

The head of the National Security Agency said the U.S. has the technical 
capability to secure its networks from cyber threats, but until Congress 
takes action on cybersecurity legislation, security improvements are 
stopped in their tracks.

Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of NSA and the commander of U.S. 
Cyber Command, said he thinks the biggest barrier to improving the 
nation's overall cyber posture boils down to a basic lack of education 
in the nation, both about how networks operate and about the scope of 
the threat.

Speaking to a government and IT security industry audience Wednesday, 
Alexander showed frustration about the slow pace toward updating the 
nation's cyber laws and said failing to prepare ahead of time for cyber 
attacks would lead to "bad decisions" should U.S. critical 
infrastructure come under attack from actors such as those who targeted 
Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, earlier this year.

"I'm concerned that attacks like that are coming, and we're spending a 
lot of time talking about what we should do, when we should just do it," 
he said. "We ought to argue it out just like we did in the election 
yesterday, but then come to a solution and get going. Because from my 
perspective, we can defend this space. We can secure it better than it 
is today, and we're stuck at the starting line. We ought to get on with 
it. I believe that's the push you're going to see from the 
administration and Congress, and it should be the push from the American 
people."

[...]


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