SIIA Applauds White House Choice for Cybersecurity Coordinator
Today’s announcement by the White House (“Introducing the New Cybersecurity Coordinator”) that Howard Schmidt is the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator is welcome news and a terrific choice. Howard not only knows the issues at stake, backwards and forward, but also knows how to work with the key players in industry and government – an essential quality to the job.
The 60-day Review laid out an ambitious set of issues that affect our nation’s economic and national security approach to cybersecurity. It is, therefore, significant that Howard will regular direct access to the President and “serve as a key member of his National Security Staff. He will also work closely with his economic team to ensure that our cybersecurity efforts keep the Nation secure and prosperous.” In testimony before Congress last month (“SIIA Testifies on Cybersecurity Activities at NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory”), SIIA emphasized that if the follow-on to the 60-day Review is going to be meaningful across a variety of commercial sectors and viable economically,
Is must not be informed predominantly by a defense-intelligence framework and the related assumptions that would inform a US Government strategy to enhance cybersecurity. With his experience and background in all facets of these challenges, Howard is well-positioned to take the 60-day Review to the next level in this regard.
SIIA was very pleased to see the recognition in the 60-day Review that it will be essential to partner effectively with the international community. We are seeing efforts in several countries – China, Russia,and India, just to name a few – to impose stringent, potentially trader restrictive frameworks that require mandatory evaluation of US IT products against locally developed, indigenous information security standards. This is not only bad security practice; it is potentially adverse to our nation’s technology base and economic security. As we have worked to roll back these regimes, the US government has been a critical partner.
SIIA and the entire software industry look forward to working with Howard, his team and all the federal agencies with key responsibilities outlined in the 60-Day Review. We all have a lot of work ahead of us.
Tags: Information Security, Public Policy, SIIA
