Cyberwarfare and the 44th Presidency

Chilling reading about the threats to the integrity of global communications that President Elect Obama will shortly face.

It comes from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency. Its mandate was to develop recommendations for a comprehensive strategy to improve cybersecurity in federal systems and in critical infrastructure.

The report was released on December 8, 2008 on Capitol Hill.

Its most dramatic conclusions

Cybersecurity is now a major national security problem for the United States

Decisions and actions must respect privacy and civil liberties

Only a comprehensive national security strategy that embraces both the domestic and international aspects of cybersecurity will make us more secure.

I’ll see if I can find an accessible form of the recommendations.

Business Week summarizes the Report as follows:

U.S. Is Losing Global Cyberwar, Commission Says
Center for Cybersecurity Operations is proposed to protect military, government, and corporate electronics from criminals and other nations. The U.S. faces a cybersecurity threat of such magnitude that the next President should move quickly to create a Center for Cybersecurity Operations and appoint a special White House advisor to oversee it.

Forbes comments:

On Monday, two senators and a commission of more than 60 IT security specialists in government and business released a set of recommendations aimed at shaping the president-elect’s cybersecurity policies, and particularly his plans for a “Cyber Initiative” launched by the Bush administration in January. The White House has largely kept the details of this cyber-defense project secret, but estimates of the cost of the program have ranged as high as $30 billion.

The Report follows one issued last month on Homeland Security generally:

Given the paucity of discussion on homeland security during the recent presidential campaign, important questions about the future direction of homeland security in America remain unanswered. The Center for Strategic and International Studies is pleased to release a special brief on Homeland Security in an Obama Administration, a forward-looking analysis of what to expect from the next president and his administration.