Biggest Challenge for Cybersecurity Executive Order: Herding All the Cats


Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is about to testify today before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Govermental Affairs regarding the President's February 12 cybersecurity executive order.  As I've mentioned in the past, the cybersecurity scene in Washington is a labyrinth and the recent EO only promises to make it much more so.

By my reckoning there are 15 government departments, agencies or offices responsible for implementing it, each to varying degrees.  They are:
  1. Administrator of General Services
  2. Attorney General
  3. Department of Agriculture (Named via Sector Specific Agency references)
  4. Department of Commerce's NIST
  5. Department of Defense
  6. Department of Energy (Named via Sector Specific Agency references)
  7. Department of Health and Human Services (Named via Sector Specific Agency references)
  8. Department of Homeland Security
  9. Department of the Treasury (Named via Sector Specific Agency references)
  10. Director of National Intelligence
  11. Environmental Protection Agency (Named via Sector Specific Agency references)
  12. Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council
  13. National Security Agency
  14. Office of Management and Budget
  15. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
And the order covers 16 critical infrastructure industries.  They are:
  1. Chemical
  2. Commercial Facilities
  3. Communications
  4. Critical Manufacturing
  5. Dams
  6. Defense Industrial Base
  7. Emergency Services
  8. Energy
  9. Financial Services
  10. Food and Agriculture
  11. Government Facilities
  12. Healthcare and Public Health
  13. Information Technology
  14. Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste
  15. Transportation Systems
  16. Water and Wastewater Systems
If I were on the Homeland Security Committee, I'd be asking a lot of questions about how DHS plans to herd all these cats through the labyrinth on such a complex subject.  Stay tuned for an update on the hearing itself.

Image Courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net.

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