President Obama’s Take On Cyber Security

Troubles ahead

Despite all the praise, the road ahead will be a difficult one.

“The White House going public is very important, but Congress has a role to play,” said Shannon Kellogg, RSA’s director of government affairs and chairman of TechAmerica’s Information Security Committee. “Giving him the tools he needs is when the tough part begins. It’s unacceptable that FISMA [Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002] has not been updated. We need to update the legal framework we all have to work under.”

One of the more formidable fights ahead on Capitol Hill will be dealing with Sen. John D. Rockerfeller’s proposed Cyber-Security Act of 2009, which would clarify the president’s authority to protect public and private systems in the face of an attack or imminent high-level threat to national security, comparable to the way that Bush exercised his authority on 11 Sept 2001, to temporarily ground all aircraft in US airspace.

Not even Obama is seeking such unprecedented authority over networks. The Centre for Democracy & Technology said in a review of Obama’s plan:

“What is omitted from this report is as significant as what is included in it. While the report recommends a stronger cyber-security role for the White House, it does not propose that the president be given the power to limit or shut down Internet traffic to a critical infrastructure information system.”