Developed nations need to create a World Health Organization-type group focused on cybercrime, said McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt at the Visa Security Summit. There should also be standards for security, which currently exist only in select industries like financial services, he said.
The U.S. can’t develop the cybersecurity expertise it needs in business and government unless universities develop cybersecurity programs, experts told the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing Thursday. Certifications for cybersecurity also must be developed, they said. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who was Intelligence Committee chairman last Congress, said he was working on a bill with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me., to provide funds for the training. But training and standards can’t be one-size-fits-all, said a representative of the control systems industry.
Cox asked the FCC to overturn a Media Bureau order requiring the company to carry KVMD Twentynine Palms, Calif., on its Palos Verdes cable system. In a Friday application for review, the cable operator said the towns are 134 miles apart and separated by a mountain range, desert and national forest. They “do not, by any measure, share the same local economic market,” Cox added. It also filed an emergency petition for stay of the bureau’s order.
Senator Robert Menendez (D) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano expressing concern about her testimony which doubted the Department of Homeland Security would be able to meet the Congressionally-mandated July 2012 deadline for 100% scanning. Menendez urges the DHS Secretary to do everything she can to either ensure the July 2012 deadline is fully met or that significant progress towards fulfilling the mandate is achieved. (Menendez press release and letter available at http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=309058)
To seek broadband grant and loans at the NTIA and the Rural Utility Service, states need structures and systems, officials said, and fierce deadlines and scarce resources may drive those lacking such mechanisms to adopt or adapt established models.
In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced the appointment of Dr. Margaret Hamburg as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the creation of a new Food Safety Working Group to coordinate with agencies and senior officials to advise the President on improving coordination throughout the government, examining and upgrading food safety laws, and enforcing laws that will keep the American people safe. In addition, the President also announced that the Department of Agriculture will close a loophole to prevent diseased cows from entering the food supply and the government will invest in the FDA to substantially increase the number of food inspectors and modernize food safety labs. (White House statement, dated 03/14/09, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Weekly-Address-President-Barack-Obama-Announces-Key-FDA-Appointments-and-Tougher-Food-Safety-Measures/.)
The VA and DoD have made “important progress” toward interoperable health records but still face challenges, the GAO reported to Congress. The departments increased their data sharing for clinical information, including pharmacy and drug allergy data, by 9,000 patients from June 2008 to January, GAO said. But the departments still haven’t set up an interagency program office. GAO reported in January that 22 of 30 positions remained unfilled (WID Jan 29 p5). Eighteen of the 30 positions had been filled March 5, GAO said, but there’s no permanent director or deputy director. VA and DoD also face challenges in coordinating standards. The departments are working with each other and with efforts led by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator. It’s important that DoD and VA work with this effort to help craft consistent national standards, GAO said. But “the need to be consistent with the emerging federal standards adds complexity to the task … (the national coordinator) stated it would not be advisable for VA and DOD to move significantly ahead of the national standards initiative; if they did, the departments might have to change the way their systems share information by adjusting them to the national standards later, as the standards continue to evolve,” GAO said.
The Department of Homeland Security is moving the duties of the National Cybersecurity Center director to a higher position, a spokeswoman told us. Confusion arose Wednesday when the agency said Secretary Janet Napolitano had appointed Philip Reitinger, chief trustworthy infrastructure strategist for Microsoft, as both deputy undersecretary of the National Protection & Programs Directorate and director of the National Cybersecurity Center. The latter position was vacated only Friday by Rod Beckstrom, who said the National Security Agency was muscling out his office for control of cybersecurity efforts (WID March 10 p7). About 10 minutes later DHS sent out a correction, stating that Reitinger was only taking the directorate slot. The spokeswoman said the undersecretary slot would handle the director’s duties, effectively moving up the profile of cybersecurity within DHS. The center is staying put, as is the slot of director, who will be chosen by and report directly to Reitinger, she said. Asked whether the directorate would move to the NSA -- a floated proposal noted with scorn by Beckstrom in his resignation letter -- the spokeswoman said Napolitano intended for DHS to remain relevant on cybersecurity issues. Reitinger has a long history in cybersecurity, previously serving as executive director of the Defense Department’s Cyber Crime Center and deputy chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division at Justice. Currently he advises the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator on cybersecurity as a member of the FEMA National Advisory Council.
Days after National Cybersecurity Center Director Rod Beckstrom resigned citing frustration with the National Security Agency’s grip on cybersecurity policy (WID March 10 p7), the House Homeland Cybersecurity Subcommittee and witnesses at a hearing Tuesday largely echoed his criticisms. The Obama administration is halfway through a 60-day review of U.S. cybersecurity policy led by Melissa Hathaway, acting senior director for cyberspace in the National Security and Homeland Security Councils. The Department of Homeland Security got poor marks from witnesses for its handling of cybersecurity. But they said a revamped DHS is better than a more-powerful NSA.
The CTIA, along with public safety groups, offered wireless microphone makers a compromise Monday on rules designed to shut down the use of wireless mics in the 700 MHz band in the U.S. The groups proposed in a letter to the FCC that equipment makers like Shure that want to export the devices label them in a way that would avoid all confusion over whether they can be used here.