‘We must have shared responsibility between the government and the private sector’ says Sen Rockefeller

Last week, Sen John ‘Jay’ Rockefeller, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, discussed the need for better partnerships between the private and public sectors in the field of cybersecurity.

“To secure our country from cyber attacks, we must have shared responsibility between the government and the private sector,” he said during an address at the Business Software Alliances’ Cybersecurity Forum.

Within cyberspace, governments cannot adquately provide protection for the nation’s infrastructure, so partnerships are critical between the government and private sectors.

“Particularly in the cyber realm, the idea that the government alone can protect our citizens’ security within clear national borders is dangerously outdated,” Sen Rockefeller said.

The growing number of cyber attacks are posing a threat to the economic security of the U.S., which Sen Rockefeller says is instricably linked to the nation’s national security.

“As our economy continues to struggle, it has become more clear than ever that economic security is national security.  The two are inseparable and we must confront them as one,” he said.

The senator also cautioned against falling into the trap of making cybersecurity an “either-or” scenario and called for industry to take the lead in this arena.

“We need you to step up and lead.  Let me be very clear: when it comes to cybersecurity, the familiar ‘Regulation versus Leave-it-to-the-Market’ debate that always dominates discussions between the government and the private sector is a dangerous false choice,” Sen Rockefeller said. “The government cannot do this on its own and neither can the private sector.  This has been demonstrated and proven.”

Instead, only by working together will the U.S. be able to tackle this problem. It will also require a change in the current mentality.

“We will only succeed together,” Sen. Rockefeller said. “But in order to do so, our efforts require an altogether new way of thinking about national security, where information and innovation are the key defenses.”

Posted by Michael Cheek on Monday, May 3rd, 2010. Filed under Cybersecurity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry