[ISN] Obama Urged to Take Immediate Cyber-security Steps

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Obama-Urged-to-Take-Immediate-Cyber-Security-Steps/

By Roy Mark
eWEEK.com
2008-11-06 

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to appoint a national 
cyber-security adviser. According to a report by the Defense Science 
Board, the cyber-security czar will inherit a civilian and military 
information infrastructure that is ill-prepared for advanced 
cyber-attacks, such as denial of service and malicious modification of 
information. The United States' vulnerability to cyber-attacks in space 
presents a particular challenge for the new leaders.

President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a Department of Defense 
increasingly concerned about advance cyber-threats to the nation's 
civilian and military information infrastructures, according to a report 
by the Defense Science Board.

The Board, a federal advisory committee established to provide 
independent advice to the Secretary of Defense, said in its Nov. 4 
report, "Defense Imperatives for the New Administration," [1] (PDF) that 
while many cyber-security studies are under way and budgets are being 
developed under President Bush's classified National Cyber Security 
Initiative, much more needs to be done. The National Cyber Security 
Initiative was begun in January and is estimated to cost as much as $30 
billion over the next seven years.

"There has been little actual progress to date in terms of implementing 
cyber-security improvements against advanced threats," the report 
stated. "The options open to adversaries are many and varied."

[1] http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2008-11-Defense_Imperatives.pdf

[...]


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