[ISN] Lieberman blasts Bush cybersecurity plan

[InfoSec News]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0322/web-dhs-03-23-04.asp

By Florence Olsen 
March 23, 2004 

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) charged the Bush administration with
"lassitude and lack of leadership" in securing the nation's critical
computer systems infrastructure.

In a March 19 letter, Lieberman, the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee and a frequent critic of the White
House's homeland security efforts, characterized the administration's
National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace as little more than vague
generalities, without timeframes, deadlines or performance benchmarks.  
The strategy was originally announced February 2003.

"It appears that the administration has been running in place, leaving
us little closer to having meaningful protections for the vital
computer dependent systems on which the country depends each day,"  
Lieberman wrote in the March 19 letter to Homeland Security Department
Secretary Tom Ridge.

Some of the lack of progress, Lieberman argues, stems from a delay in
finding someone to head DHS' National Cyber Security Division, a
position now filled by Amit Yoran.

The 22-page letter criticized DHS officials' performance and asked 57
questions covering areas such as what DHS is doing about reducing
software vulnerabilities, and plans for continuity and contingency
planning.