I was recently invited by our Corporate Counsel to attend a local Virginia networking event hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Howard Schmidt was the speaker. I’ve run into Howard a few more times than I expected to this year, and each time it is interesting to see what he has to say.
Howard started his career as a policeman, and his approach to cyber security is informed by that experience. Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s an OK thing. I would much rather see a law enforcement angle focused on cybercrime than a warrior angle focused on the chimera of cyberwar. Of course, given my druthers, I would choose an architect (especially a software architect) over a law enforcement person to be in charge of cyber security. One of these years…
Howard’s talk was fine. Nothing earth shattering and no major revelations unless you’re a government employee about to be bound by HSPD 12. Howard emphasizes deterrence (especially using economics and harsh punishments to deter cyber crime), accountability (focused mostly on criminality and sentencing), resilience (where his story needs some more work and could do with a good dose of technology), and privacy. I would like to see more emphasis on building security in in the first place, but the government still has some basic blocking and tackling to do.
I wish I had a nickel for every time the political types say “public private partnership.” That dog failed to hunt long ago. Time for a new dog. Even making a joke out of it invokes groans. No more political pandering with public private partnerships please.
I still believe that the government is WAY behind when it comes to cyber security. I also think that the Obama administration has made important progress since the days of the at-first-classified CNCI. They may have caught up to 1996! Only 14 years to go.
Take home message from me: not one mention of cyber war the entire time, only a little about cyber espionage and IP, and plenty of focus on cyber crime. At least our executive branch is sane!
Thanks for dragging me out of the sticks, Tom.