House Homeland Security Lawmakers Weigh ‘Lack of’ Federal Cyber Strategy
A May report from the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security suggests federal chief information officers are “not empowered” to oversee cybersecurity risk management, Venable Cybersecurity Risk Management Group Managing Director-Cybersecurity Services Ari Schwartz told…
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House Homeland Security Committee lawmakers Wednesday. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee Chairman John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, noted the report shows 74 percent of federal agencies “have cybersecurity programs that are either at risk or high risk.” There's "an evident lack of strategy in mitigating risk across federal agencies,” he said during a subcommittee hearing. Symantec Global Government Affairs Senior Strategist Ken Durbin described the report as “a clear-eyed and unbiased look at the current state of our cybersecurity preparedness.” Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute CERT Technical Director-Cybersecurity Risk and Resilience Summer Fowler recommended the U.S. “advance our cybersecurity risk management practices with a focus on operational resilience,” based on the report. Lawmakers discussed emergency response technology in a separate hearing before the Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee. Chairman Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., said “American ingenuity should be nurtured” to ensure communities are ready for the next threat. National Institute of Standards and Technology Public Safety Communications Division Chief Dereck Orr listed emerging technologies the federal government is developing for emergency response, including: deployable drones with autonomous flight controls; various LTE broadband device capabilities; location-based services for assets and personnel; and public safety analytics tools that will allow public use of large amounts of data. Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator-Resilience Daniel Kaniewski discussed how FEMA “leveraged crowdsourcing data from digital volunteer networks to enhance situational awareness during the 2017 disasters.” DHS Science and Technology Directorate Director-First Responders Group Daniel Cotter said his office is “adding value at the intersection” of Smart Cities and the IoT. That includes development of unmanned aerial systems, detection sensors and SmartHubs for responder-focused mobile communication, he said.