{"id":6635,"date":"2017-02-15T04:30:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T12:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/02\/15\/news-454\/"},"modified":"2017-02-15T04:30:03","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T12:30:03","slug":"news-454","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/02\/15\/news-454\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubts abound over U.S. action on cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 04:02:00 -0800<\/strong><\/p>\n

How should the U.S. respond to cyberattacks? That\u2019s been a major question at this year\u2019s RSA security conference, following Russia\u2019s suspected attempt to influence<\/a> last year\u2019s election. <\/p>\n

Clearly, the government should be doing more on cybersecurity, said U.S. lawmakers and officials at the show in San Francisco, but they admit that politics and policy conflicts have hampered\u00a0the government’s approach.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cI wish the federal government could do this, but it\u2019s very hard, unfortunately, due to partisan politics,\u201d said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, during a speech at the show. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been able to take the lead on this issue as they should have.\u201d <\/p>\n

Instead, it might be up to the states to assume a larger role in promoting cybersecurity, given that divisive politics at the federal level have been stalling government action, McAuliffe said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The\u00a0RSA conference 2017. <\/p>\n

Collectively, state governments store more data than the federal government, including residents’ tax returns, healthcare records and drivers\u2019 licenses, he said. That can make them targets of hackers, so McAuliffe has been urging other states to make cybersecurity a priority. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the governors of this country to lean in and take the lead,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

At the RSA show, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the U.S. is falling behind on cybersecurity, pointing to the numerous hacks from state-sponsored hackers. \u201cWe are in the fight of our digital lives and we are not winning,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

McCaul, who also chairs the House committee on Homeland Security, said Russia\u2019s suspected involvement in influencing last year\u2019s election was a \u201cwake-up call.\u201d But he was disappointed with the responses<\/a> from the \u00a0administration of President Barack Obama and Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate,\u00a0 to the Kremlin\u2019s alleged meddling. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are no consequences for bad behavior, the bad behavior will continue,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, we still do not have a clear proportionate response, policies for striking back.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, coming up with a U.S. doctrine on stopping serious cyberattacks is easier said than done. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big questions out there is what is an act of war in cyberspace?\u201d said Daniel Lerner, a staff member at the U.S. Senate committee on Armed Services, who also spoke at the show. <\/p>\n

Currently, the U.S. treats every serious cyberattack on a case-by-case basis, which does little to dissuade the state-sponsored hackers from attacking in the first place, he said. \u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s no way to project deterrence. And it really undermines our overall security posture, if every instance is a crisis,\u201d Lerner said. <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that trying to accurately prove a foreign country was behind a cyberattack can be incredibly hard and might involve sensitive intelligence. <\/p>\n

For instance, U.S. intelligence agencies have declined to share publicly classified evidence showing why they suspect Russia was behind last year\u2019s election-related hacks. In addition, the Kremlin has denied any involvement. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, more U.S. government officials want to see the country take action in the event of another cyberattack, said Brendan Shields, staff director at the House committee on Homeland Security. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fuse is getting shorter and shorter,\u201d he said at a panel discussion at RSA. \u201cI think there is a growing desire for making sure deterrence is real.\u201d <\/p>\n

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, speaking at the RSA conference. <\/p>\n

However, going after state-sponsored hackers is only one aspect of the problem. Much more of it has to do with defense, and protecting users from hacking threats that are coming over consumer-made products or websites. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an area where the private sector also needs to play a crucial role, given that IT vendors have most of the cybersecurity talent, McAuliffe said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need your ideas. We need the private sector,\u201d McAuliffe said. \u201cWe at the state government cannot drive this. The federal government cannot drive this.\u201d <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 04:02:00 -0800<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

How should the U.S. respond to cyberattacks? That\u2019s been a major question at this year\u2019s RSA security conference, following Russia\u2019s suspected attempt to influence<\/a> last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the government should be doing more on cybersecurity, said U.S. lawmakers and officials at the show in San Francisco, but they admit that politics and policy conflicts have hampered\u00a0the government’s approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish the federal government could do this, but it\u2019s very hard, unfortunately, due to partisan politics,\u201d said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, during a speech at the show. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been able to take the lead on this issue as they should have.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11062,10643],"tags":[11192,714],"class_list":["post-6635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computerworld","category-independent","tag-election-hacking","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}