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How many times a day do you use the Internet? And for how long?
Many people in this community and around the nation use computers at home and in their jobs, writing reports, using e-mail to communicate or maybe filling orders that are placed.
But while computers are useful tools and the Internet keeps people connected, it isn’t the friendliest place given the people who are out to spam, infect or find out information via computers.
And if you’re working at a government office, you can be targeted, too.
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On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama was urged to do something about the threats via cyberspace. In a 96-page report titled “Security Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency,” the think-tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies offers its version of a warning, as well as what it thinks needs to be done to better defend the nation’s networks and computer systems.
The recommendations in the report include contributions from five people working on Obama’s transition team. And some members of Congress had urged the research, including the two ranking members of the House Homeland Security subcommittee.
The report states the Department of Homeland Security, which includes 22 federal agencies put together after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, isn’t doing a good enough job in dealing with cyberattacks and cybercrime.
Some of the recommendations in the report include creating a federal office to deal with cyberspace issues, streamlining laws governing online crime to speed investigations, and requiring strong authentication of identity on critical infrastructures for people and devices.
With reported cyberattacks from Russia and China increasing and hackers and spammers plying their trade with more sophistication, including on government computer networks, it is more important than ever for the nation to make sure security measures are in place to protect systems and networks. Whether that means making a separate federal agency, we don’t know.
But we think the new report should be taken seriously by the Obama administration and Congress. Improvements to cybersecurity need to be made.
Independent wrote on Dec 10, 2008 3:46 PM: