US May Get a Center For Cybersecurity Operations

In a report entitled “Securing Cyberspace in the 44th Presidency,”  the US Commission on Cybersecurity is said to recommend the setting up of a Center for Cybersecurity Operations to protect military, government, and corporate electronics from criminals and other nations. Support from the US President-elect Barack Obama in establishing the new body is not doubted because he earlier pledged the appointment of a “national cyber advisor” if elected.

Following in an excerpt from the Business Week article:

The report calls for the creation of a Center for Cybersecurity Operations that would act as a new regulator of computer security in both the public and private sector. Active policing of government and corporate networks would include new rules and a “red team” to test computers for vulnerabilities now being exploited with increasing sophistication and frequency by identity and credit card thieves, bank fraudsters, crime rings, and electronic spies.

Business Week quotes Tom Kellermann, who had a role in crafting the US cybersecurity strategy in 2003: “We’re playing a giant game of chess now and we’re losing badly.” In the recent past there have been break-ins in Homeland Security, information loss in DOD and a few other “incidents”. The most recent one was the attack by a malware called agent.btz which afflicted both military and corporate networks.

Some of the attacks are considered to have come not just from organized gangs but also with backing from other governments. Read the Business Week article for more details.