Thursday, September 18, 2003
New National CyberSecurity Team In Place
U.S. Names New Cybersecurity Team and Czar
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security Monday rolled out a new initiative aimed at shortening the response time to cyberattacks like worms and viruses, and named the new cybersecurity czar who will oversee it. The U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team is a partnership between the department and a federally funded computer security center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The launch comes after computer users all over the world were struck by two self-replicating programs, or "worms," that exploited a security hole in the Windows operating system. According to evidence at a congressional hearing last week, the Sobig and Loveboat worms caused several billion dollars worth of damage in repair costs and lost productivity.
At a breakfast for software executives, Homeland Security Infrastructure chief Robert Liscouski named Amit Yoran, a vice president of Symantec, who make the widely used anti-virus software Norton, to head up the department's new National Cyber Security Division and oversee the partnership with Carnegie Mellon. Yoran, who had previously worked as the Pentagon's network security manager, has a good reputation in the industry. "He is very highly regarded," Will Rodger of the Computer and Communications Industry Association told United Press International.
It's good to see that the government realizes that there IS a threat. The FBI has been doing a pretty good job nailing virus/worm authors. Let's hope it only gets better.
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security Monday rolled out a new initiative aimed at shortening the response time to cyberattacks like worms and viruses, and named the new cybersecurity czar who will oversee it. The U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team is a partnership between the department and a federally funded computer security center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The launch comes after computer users all over the world were struck by two self-replicating programs, or "worms," that exploited a security hole in the Windows operating system. According to evidence at a congressional hearing last week, the Sobig and Loveboat worms caused several billion dollars worth of damage in repair costs and lost productivity.
At a breakfast for software executives, Homeland Security Infrastructure chief Robert Liscouski named Amit Yoran, a vice president of Symantec, who make the widely used anti-virus software Norton, to head up the department's new National Cyber Security Division and oversee the partnership with Carnegie Mellon. Yoran, who had previously worked as the Pentagon's network security manager, has a good reputation in the industry. "He is very highly regarded," Will Rodger of the Computer and Communications Industry Association told United Press International.
It's good to see that the government realizes that there IS a threat. The FBI has been doing a pretty good job nailing virus/worm authors. Let's hope it only gets better.
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