Businesses Need to Focus on Cybersecurity, Chertoff Says

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will start to focus much of its effort on improving cybersecurity, Secretary Michael Chertoff announced last week. However, Chertoff also warned private companies that they need to start making a greater effort to protect their own cyber systems.

In an article on the Computer World website, writer Grant Gross says Chertoff made the remarks last week at the InfraGard National Conference in Washington, D.C. Chertoff also made it clear that there need to be more incentives for IT vendors to focus on cybersecurity. One such incentive, Chertoff said, was for the government to institute legal reforms that limit damages from product lawsuits.

However, Chertoff also pointed out that private companies should already have good reasons to protect their infrastructures. “There's also a very strong business case to be made for private-sector investment in security,” he said at the event. “In today's threat environment, active security measures are critical to businesses themselves, because the cost of an attack will very, very greatly outweigh the cost of protection.”

Gross says there was one major point Chertoff didn't address at the event: a May report from the Government Accountability Office which said the agency has “not fully addressed any” of its 13 key cybersecurity areas.

Chertoff did say that the DHS would be looking at cybersecurity in the coming months, especially after it hires someone to fill the newly created position of assistant secretary of cybersecurity.

To read the full article, click here: www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,103827,00.html