Fergie's Tech Blog

Black Hat: Less Gov't Involvement Would Be A Good Thing

Dan Kaplan writes on SC Magazine:

While all eyes seem fixated on who will be named to the federal cybersecurity coordinator post, some may be overlooking the expansiveness of the private sector to defend against attacks, according to a panel of government and public policy experts speaking Wednesday at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

“If our nation came under attack tonight, we don't have a way to respond,” said Marcus Sachs, executive director of government affairs for national security policy at Verizon.

“We've got to, as a nation, step up to the plate and be leaders as we've always been,” added Sachs, who also is director of the all-volunteer SANS Internet Storm Center. “Do we need a cyberczar? Are we that hopeless that we can't figure out, as community, how to do this?”

The private sector owns about 85 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure.

Amit Yoran, CEO of security intelligence firm NetWitness and the former director of US-CERT, agreed.

“To think that the government is the center of defense in the cyber realm, I think is a fallacy,” he said.

posted by Fergie @ 7/29/2009 09:33:00 PM