DHS rejects criticism of agency as Beltway politics

Computerworld - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today dismissed as classic Beltway politics the suggestion by a group of experts that it was unfit to lead the nation's cybersecurity initiatives.

The criticism was leveled yesterday by members of a commission working on developing cybersecurity recommendations for the next administration in Washington. The group, in testimony before a congressional subcommittee, suggested that the White House, rather than the DHS, needs to take charge of defending the country against cyberthreats.

At the hearing, lawmakers were told that the department does not have the leadership, the implementation capabilities or the influence needed at the federal level and with the private sector to drive the improvements needed to bolster the nation's cybersecurity.

Laura Keehner, a DHS spokeswoman, dismissed the criticism as a political gambit aimed at snaring a few headlines. "Rearranging the deck chairs is a classic 'inside the Beltway' pastime," Keehner said in an e-mailed comment. "But all that it ensures are more headlines for political posturing and a guarantee that in two years, government's cyberefforts will be in the same place."

Keehner insisted that the agency was getting meaningful work done and cited as examples the recent creation of the National Cyber Security Center and the hiring of "several hundred" information security analysts. She also said the DHS was focused on collaborating with the private sector, which owns much of the nation's critical infrastructure.

"To be fair, we are undertaking something not unlike the Manhattan Project," Keehner said. "Billions of dollars are going into this effort. We're the first to admit there is more work to be done, but the progress that we have made should not be discounted."

Her comments came in the wake of a barrage of criticism leveled against the agency yesterday by members of the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency. The 40-person commission was established last November by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan Washington-based organization focused on security policy initiatives. The group is scheduled to release its final recommendations in November.

Yesterday, members of the commission presented some advance details of the recommendations they are developing to the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology.

Paul Kurtz, chief operating officer of Good Harbor Consulting in Arlington, Va., and a member of the CSIS commission, said that escalating espionage and attacks against critical infrastructure and government targets have elevated cybersecurity from a DHS problem to "a national security issue." It's a situation that calls for far more leadership and organizational ability than the DHS has shown it is capable of, he said.