Crossroads Blog | CYBER SECURITY LAW AND POLICY

Legislation, Michael Hayden

Cyber Threat Clearinghouse Key To National Security: Federal Computer Week

On Dec. 9th, 2011, Michael Hayden (former CIA/NSA head), Samuel Visner, and David Zolet wrote an opinion article for Federal Computer Week.  The article argued for a national cybersecurity clearinghouse that would see greater collaboration between the federal government and the private sector, and amongst private entities as well.  The authors argued that the federal government should share cyber threats with private sector critical infrastructure owners.

Moreover, the authors believe that private sector entities should collaborate with each other.  The private sector owns 85% of all critical infrastructure in the US and employs more cyberexperts than the federal government.  As such, they should band together and mutually benefit.  To this end, the authors call for the creation of a cybersecurity clearinghouse that would share threats and countermeasures between the federal government and the private sector.

Finally, the authors argue for the continued implementation of the Defense Industrial Base program, which is another type of information sharing program conducted between the federal government and defense contractors.

The source article can be found here.

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The aforementioned national clearinghouse was recently proposed in this legislation.

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