Still More on Homeland Security

I am trying not to write too much about my criticism of Homeland Security goals and operations, so as not to drive my readers away, but I can't help but pass this one along.

While Homeland Security was keeping us safe from Star Wars file swappers (see blog dated 5/31/05), a report was issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) saying that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet a single one of its 13 cybersecurity goals.

According to the report, the DHS has not created national cyber vulnerability assessments or government and industry recovery plans for cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are becoming more and more likely to threaten vital national infrastructure, the report says, and the tools to launch cyber attacks are becoming more and more easy to find.

Still more from the report...the DHS needs to address several challenges, including more organizational stability in its National Cyber Security Division, better awareness of its cybersecurity roles, and better partnerships with private industry. "Much work remains ahead," the GAO report said. "Until it confronts and resolves these underlying challenges and implements its plans, DHS will have difficulty achieving significant results in strengthening the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure."

The GAO report will come as no surprise to many IT vendors and trade groups, which have called for DHS to focus more on cybersecurity issues. DHS needs to better work with the private sector and provide cybersecurity leadership, said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), in an interview earlier this month. The ITAA and other groups have called for DHS to appoint an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, instead of the current lower-level director of cybersecurity, as a way to bring more attention to cybersecurity issues.

Another update to my story on 6/1/05 about bugging cell phone calls on airplanes, the FCC has been inundated with letters, e-mail's and phone calls from thousands of people who do not want cell phone usage to be allowed on airplanes. They are not objecting to Homeland Security listening in on their calls. Rather, they do not want to listen to the guy in the next seat talking on his cell phone on a cross-country flight while they are trying to sleep or read. I could not agree more.