[ISN] Computer hackers a top concern for Homeland Security

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 01:08:29 -0600 (CST)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-homeland-security-20110302,0,2881352.story

By Julie Mianecki
Washington Bureau
Los Angeles Times
March 1, 2011

Cyber security is a potential "nightmare" for the Department of Homeland 
Security in the years ahead, as are concerns about homegrown terrorists 
and intelligence sharing, officials said Tuesday at a seminar marking 
the department's eighth anniversary.

"The nightmare that the DHS has," said Stewart Baker, a former head of 
policy at the department, "is that a very sophisticated hacker, perhaps 
working for Hezbollah, manages to infiltrate our electric grid and to 
bring down power to a portion of the United States, not for an hour or 
two, but for days or weeks. This would create a major humanitarian 
crisis."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the rapid pace of 
change is the biggest issue with technology.

"The problem with cyber is almost by the time you're talking about 
something, they're on to the next thing," Napolitano said. "It is really 
a fast-moving field that, quite frankly, probably none of us are as good 
at understanding as somebody who's 20 years old, so this is an area 
where we're really trying to hire people. And if there are students in 
the audience that have any cyber interest, I would ask them to see me 
after."

[...]


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Received on Tue Mar 01 2011 - 23:08:29 PST

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