[Infowarrior] - Proposal Would Shore Up Govt. Cyber Defenses

[Richard Forno]

(draft bill @ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/COE09406_xml.pdf)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/04/proposal_would_shore_up_uncle.html?hpid=sec-tech

Proposal Would Shore Up Govt. Cyber Defenses

While cyber attacks have evolved dramatically since the beginning of  
this decade, the regulations governing how federal agencies defend  
against digital intruders haven't been updated since 2002. Legislation  
expected to be introduced Tuesday in the Senate would seek to correct  
that imbalance.

The "U.S. Information and Communications Enhancement Act of 2009,"  
which would update the Federal Information Security Management Act, or  
FISMA, calls for the creation of hacker squads to test the defenses of  
federal agency networks. In addition, agencies would be required to  
show that they can effectively detect and respond to the latest cyber  
attacks on their information systems.

Critics of the current law say it merely requires agencies to show  
they have the proper cyber security policies in place, but not  
necessarily demonstrate that those policies are helping to block or  
mitigate real-world attacks.