U.S. Review of Cybersecurity Policies Due Friday

On Friday, President Obama is expected to release the results of a 60-day review of U.S. cyber security policy. The review was performed by Melissa Hathaway, interim White House cyber security adviser and a former Bush administration official.

The report was commissioned shortly after the March 2009 resignation of Rod Beckstrom, then head of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Center. In his resignation letter, Beckstrom expressed frustration with the lack of support provided to DHS and attempts by the NSA to dominate cybersecurity iniatives.

President Obama is also expected to appoint what the press has dubbed a "cyber czar" - an advisor to the president that would oversee cybercrime initiatives in a non-operational capacity.

The expected announcements come nearly a dozen years after a coordinated cybercrime iniative was first proposed. On December 10, 1997, then U.S. Attorney General Reno met with officials from eight other countries (the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, France, and Russia) to discuss "a new frontier of crime" - a developing phenomenom that would later become known as cybercrime. In that initial meeting, seven basic steps were defined to lay the groundwork for combatting this then emerging threat:

1. Ensure sufficient number of trained law enforcement personnel
2. Establish 24/7 high-tech crime contacts
3. Enable faster tracing of attacks
4. Cooperative prosecution of crimes
5. Preserving forensics
6. Appropriate legislation
7. Joint and cooperative work with industry

Many of those recommended steps were eventually put into action, but delays in doing so coupled with inconsistent implementation and persistent spotty execution prevented the forward-thinking planning from having the type of impact it otherwise might have had. In essence, the forecast was correct and the action items valid; the real problem lay with the action items not being properly acted upon. We can only hope the original seven steps remain a part of the new plan and that the forthcoming cybercrime policies don't continue to keep cybercrime initiatives and the respective law enforcement efforts mired in political muck.