DHS Sec'y Calls for Global Cooperation on Cyber

Published July 01, 2011

Just a little cyber security update. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano just spoke to a theme we here at DT have been talking about for weeks; the need for an organized, global response to the growing cyber threat.

Via eWeekeurope:

“Most countries don’t even have a legal framework that really governs cyber. It is such a new phenomenon in that regard so the legal systems – both domestic and international – have not kept pace with the technological advances we have seen,” Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“And that is just the plain fact of it. We need to accelerate that in response,” she added.
Her warning comes amid a rising tide of cyber attacks against soveriegn nations and governments, as well as strategically important companies and organisations. This includes recent attacks that have hit the the International Monetary Fund, theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) and companies such as Citigroup and Lockheed Martin.
Napolitano also warned that many countries need to accelerate their security procedures as well as their ability to co-operate.
“I would have to say that we are still at the nascent stage. There is no comprehensive international framework,” for approaching the issue, she told reporters. She also added that the situation was no better in the European Union.
“We are all scrambling but we are scrambling with some of the best minds in the world and we are confident that from a technological point of view we are going to get to a satisfactory resolution of some of these difficult problems,” she is quoted as saying. “Right now there needs to be some sort of international legal framework to address those and that does not yet exist.”