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Report: White House should oversee cybersecurity

  • Story Highlights
  • President-elect Barack Obama should boost U.S. cybersecurity, think tank says
  • Report: Obama should create a White House office to oversee cyberspace security
  • "Cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems," report says
  • The president-elect has already made detailed cybersecurity proposals

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The incoming president should create a new White House office and appoint a presidential assistant to oversee a "comprehensive national security strategy for cyberspace," a Washington-based think tank recommended Monday.

President-elect Barack Obama should create a new White House office to oversee cybersecurity, a think tank says.

President-elect Barack Obama should create a new White House office to oversee cybersecurity, a think tank says.

The recommendations came in a report produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, a panel formed in August 2007 "after the United States suffered a wave of damaging attacks in cyberspace." President-elect Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.

The CSIS report says that "cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems facing the U.S." and that "only a comprehensive national security strategy that embraces both the domestic and international aspects of cybersecurity will improve the situation." The report says any decisions "must respect American values related to privacy and civil liberties."

The report says the United States should coordinate "all the tools of U.S. power" -- diplomatic, intelligence, military and economic -- to deal with cybersecurity.

It proposes the creation of a new presidential office -- the National Office for Cyberspace. It says the president "should appoint an assistant for cyberspace and establish a Cybersecurity Directorate" in the National Security Council "that absorbs existing Homeland Security Council functions."

The CSIS report also calls for setting "minimum standards for securing cyberspace, to ensure that the delivery of critical services in cyberspace continues when we are attacked."

It recommends "requiring better authentication" of digital identities, which it says "significantly improves defensive capabilities." The report calls for updating old cyberspace laws that were "written for the technologies of a less-connected era."

Only "secure" products and services "based on standards and guidelines developed in partnership with industry" should be purchased by government, the report says. Research, training and education should be expanded, the report recommends.

It says the Bush administration's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative would be a good starting point for the incoming Obama administration.

President-elect Obama has made detailed cybersecurity proposals, and they are listed on his Web site.

He has called for "strengthening federal leadership on cybersecurity," supporting an effort "to develop next-generation secure computers and networking for national security applications," and protecting the IT infrastructure, preventing "corporate cyber-espionage."

Other Obama proposals include combating the transmission of "untraceable Internet payment schemes, mandating "standards for securing personal data," and requiring companies "to disclose personal information data breaches."

The CSIS commission was co-chaired by U.S. Rep. James Langevin, D-Rhode Island, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Langevin is the chairman and McCaul is the ranking Republican of the Homeland Security subcommittee on emerging threats, cybersecurity, science and technology.

All About Barack ObamaComputer SecurityDomestic Security PolicyCenter for Strategic and International Studies

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