Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Criticism, Current Affairs, cyber attack

PCAST Report: Government Rarely Follows Best Practices in Cybersecurity

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released the following report entitled, “Immediate Opportunities for Strengthening the Nation’s Cybersecurity.”

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Generally, it appears PCAST believes the Obama Administration could be doing more to protect our nation’s cyber interests.  Specifically, one of the report’s findings is that:

The Federal Government rarely follows accepted best practices. It needs to lead by example and accelerate its efforts to make routine cyber attacks more difficult by implementing best practices for its own systems.

Another finding concludes:

Many private-sector entities come under some form of Federal regulation for reasons not directly related to national security.  In many such cases there is opportunity, fully consistent with the intent of the existing enabling legislation, for promoting and achieving best practices in cybersecurity.

Here’s the full report and here’s a pretty blistering review of the report and the Administration’s cyber practices by Sean Gallagher and ARS Technica.

 

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