Is Congress to Blame for Poor US Cyber Security?

This was written by Brynn Koeppen on Friday, November 20, 2009, 15:31.

According to a former assistant secretary for cyber security at DHS, Congress shares some of the blame for the current state of cyber security in the United States. Gregory Garcia, assistant secretary for cyber security at DHS from 2006 to 2008, believes that the intensive and often overlapping oversight significantly hindered DHS’s ability to implement effective cyber security policies and solutions.

Garcia cited a few examples, particularly that at least eight different committees in the House and Senate have some measure of oversight over aspects of policy relating to cyber security. The committees often approached the problems in an uncoordinated and conflicting manner. Garcia also highlighted the that decisions that could have been made by civil servants at DHS were instead being made by political appointees to cover themselves in their dealings with Congress.

Garcia proposed that the various Congressional committees  “need to bring their committees together, sit them around the table … and make sure everybody understands what is their jurisdiction, what’s their responsibility, and what are the policy gaps. Have a coordinated, leadership-driven process, rather than letting all these committees go off freelancing with their next great idea.”