Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Federal Government’s Track Record on Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure

The Federal Government’s Track Record on Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure A report prepared by the Minority Staff of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Sen. Tom Coburn, MD, Ranking Member. February 4, 2014.

“In the past few years, we have seen significant breaches in cybersecurity which could affect critical U.S. infrastructure. Data on the nation’s weakest dams, including those which could kill Americans if they failed, were stolen by a malicious intruder. Nuclear plants’ confidential cybersecurity plans have been left unprotected. Blueprints for the technology undergirding the New York Stock Exchange were exposed to hackers. Examples like those underscore for many the importance of increased federal involvement in protecting the nation’s privately-owned critical infrastructure. But for one thing: Those failures aren’t due to poor practices by the private sector. All of the examples [in this report] were real lapses by the federal government.”

Leave a reply