White House cybersecurity official not forthcoming at RSA Conference
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Obama adminstration's top cyber official, Melissa Hathaway, spoke yesterday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, but did not spell out specific actions the administration is taking upon completing its 60-day cybersecurity review.
Hathaway instead "highlighted all of the meetings, studies and recommendations that have informed the administration's 60-day cyberspace policy review, which was completed last week," the Washington Post security blog reported.
Hathaway said the findings of the review will be released in the coming days, but described the problem that led to the review in stark terms.
"It can be said that the Federal government is not organized appropriately to address this growing problem because responsibilities for cyberspace are distributed across a wide array of federal departments and agencies, many with overlapping authorities and none with sufficient decision authority to direct actions that can address the problem completely," Hathaway said, according to her prepared remarks.
Some attendees said afterward they were expecting to hear more concrete findings and recommendations.
"It was a pretty consistent message we've been hearing," said Jerry Dixon, former director of the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security, according to SCmagazineUS.com. "I thought a lot more information would come out of this talk."
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