[Infowarrior] - Congress slams Homeland Security's tech efforts

Wed Sep 13 21:24:37 EDT 2006

Congress slams Homeland Security's tech efforts

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/Congress+slams+Homeland+Securitys+tech+efforts/2100-1028
_3-6115434.html

Story last modified Wed Sep 13 15:33:03 PDT 2006

WASHINGTON--The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sustained
more bashing of its cybersecurity efforts from politicians and government
auditors.

In what has become a familiar refrain, a chorus of Republicans and
Democrats--all from the U.S. House of Representatives panel on
telecommunications and the Internet--urged the agency to get its act
together and appoint a long-awaited cybersecurity czar.

Then, at a sparsely attended afternoon hearing here, members of the House of
Representatives' Homeland Security panel grilled department officials about
shortcomings in the Homeland Security Information Network, which was
intended to ease sharing of counterterrorism information among federal,
state and local investigators.

During the morning hearing, politicians voiced dismay at the unsurprising
findings of a Government Accountability Office report (click for PDF) that
was released Wednesday and that had been prepared at the committee's
request.

"Both government and the private sector are poorly prepared to effectively
respond to cyberevents," David Powner, the GAO's director of information
technology management issues, told the politicians. "Although DHS has
various initiatives under way, these need to be better coordinated and
driven to closure."

The Department of Homeland Security, which is chiefly responsible for
coordinating responses to cyberattacks, also has no concrete plan for
responding to cyberdisasters in partnership with the private sector, Powner
said.

The department's Under Secretary for Preparedness George Foresman adopted a
defensive posture throughout the two-hour hearing, which also included
testimony from the Federal Communications Commission and private sector
representatives. A similar slate of witnesses, including Foresman, was
scheduled to testify on the subject before a House Homeland Security panel
on Wednesday afternoon.

Foresman emphasized that finding someone to fill the post of assistant
secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications remains a "top priority"
for the department. The post has been vacant since its creation in July
2005, a situation that has drawn a rash of criticism inside and outside the
government.

"We are in the final stages of a security process review for a candidate we
feel is very well-qualified," he said. "We look forward to announcing this
candidate with Congress very soon."

For a number of politicians, that assurance wasn't good enough. "To have
gone this long without any attention to this or without having someone
direct this part of the orchestra is dangerous for this country, I think, in
plain English," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat. "I'm not one to
try to hype up fear and all that, but we've placed outselves in a real ditch
here by not having the administration name someone."

Foresman said he would "strenuously object" to the insinuation that
department has been sitting idle while the post has remained vacant. "Had we
been in neutral the entire time, I think there would be a grave concern, but
I think we have been in overdrive all the time," he said.

One example of an action the department has taken was a weeklong mock attack
called Cyber Storm, he said. The agency on Wednesday released a 17-page
"after-action report" assessing the results of the February exercise, which
involved more than 100 public and private agencies, associations, and
corporations from more than 60 locations across five countries.

Among the challenges experienced during the exercise, according to the
report, are an insufficient number of "technical experts" on board to "fully
leverage the large volume of incident information that was being provided;"
difficulty figuring who to call within organizations to seek help during
crises; and lack of a rapid means to assess and prioritize--or
"triage"--cyber incidents.

Terrorist cyber-attacks?
Fresh off commemorations of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks
earlier this week, some members at the morning hearing seemed particularly
alarmed by the specter of terrorist-driven cyberincidents.

"Certainly cyberterrorism is something that is likely to be in al-Qaida's
playbook, and we should be vigilant against such threats," said Rep. Edward
Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who serves as co-chairman of the panel.

"Some people probably think they're exempt from the impact of the Internet,
but you'd almost have to live in a cave to be truly unaffected," added Texas
Republican Joe Barton, who serves as chairman of the influential House
Energy and Commerce Committee. A widespread disruption on that front, he
quipped, "is exactly the outcome envisioned by a man who does live in a
cave: Osama bin Laden."

That theme continued in the afternoon hearing, convened by a House panel on
intelligence, information-sharing and terrorism risk assessment.

"If we are not successful in our information-sharing efforts, then we are
not going to be successful in connecting the dots to protect our people and
our nation from the possibility of additional attacks," said Connecticut
Republican Rob Simmons, the panel's chairman.

The focus of concern was a June 2006 report (click for PDF) from the
department's Inspector General's Office that found the agency's
information-sharing network was not performing as intended.

The Department of Homeland Security's Assistant Inspector General Frank
Deffer outlined a number of those flaws. They included an overly rushed
schedule for rolling out and expanding the system after DHS inherited
control of it in 2003; inadequate training and guidance for users on how to
use it; general mistrust for the secrecy of information shared through the
portals; and lack of availability of real-time information about situations.

During the 2005 London Underground bombings, for instance, "users were able
to get better information faster by calling personal contacts at law
enforcement agencies with connections to the London police than by using the
system," Deffer said. As a result, the system has very few active users, he
said.

"Taxpayers really should be outraged by what's happened here," Rep. Zoe
Lofgren, a California Democrat, said of the $50 million undertaking. "The
program is not only a model of haste and waste, but it's a missed
opportunity to do things right."