CEO Blog
President Obama Announces Cybersecurity Initiative
Friday, May 29th, 2009
I had the privilege this morning of attending an event at the White House at which President Obama released the Cyberspace Policy Review he asked Melissa Hathaway to conduct earlier this year. The President also announced the creation of a new position in the executive branch to be known as the Cybersecurity Coordinator. The President intends to identify the new Cybersecurity Coordinator himself as the position will report jointly to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. The fact that the President invited private sector leaders to these announcements is indicative of just how seriously he is about creating the kind of public/private partnership required to secure the nation’s Internet infrastructure.
This is a watershed day for our nation and a new opportunity to move forward in the area of cybersecurity. The important points made by the President today were threefold. First, I thought it was important that he linked cybersecurity to the economy and the future of the United States and its capabilities. In the past cybersecurity has been siloed. It tended to be viewed as a technology issue. Today the President made it an everyman issue citing his own campaign. After using tremendous outreach to change the way political campaigns work in America, even the Obama campaign fell victim to cybersecurity issues. I think when the President of the United States makes it personal, it makes it personal for all of us.
Secondly, from the economic perspective, the President linked cybersecurity very much to innovation. The jobs, job creation, and future innovation depend very much upon us securing the systems that we’re going to have to run our businesses and our lives on.
Last, the President was very specific in saying that this is going to be a long haul. This problem was not created overnight. The systems being breached were not put in overnight. He was very specific that we’re going to have to be very diligent and patient if we are to meet this challenge. The President also clearly wants to reach out to our international business partners and governments to determine how we move forward collectively to ensure the Internet and its commerce and innovation continue to thrive.
I believe today represents a key milestone in our efforts to secure cyberspace and I applaud the President’s vision and resolve on this issue. I’ll have further comments on the President’s announcements next week after I have a chance to reflect upon them further and digest the Cyberspace Policy Review. In the meantime, below are some links to a selection of the coverage of this important day.