From: Politico
By TONY ROMM
President Barack Obama’s high-profile cybersecurity order last week faces a brutal reality with news of the latest case of Chinese cyber espionage: The U.S. government has work to do to keep up with the attackers.
The federal government is slow, the regulations are voluntary and cyber defenses at this point aren’t yet up to snuff. Substantive changes may move at a snail’s pace in comparison with the rate at which new, sophisticated attacks are coming to light.
For example, it’s going to be many months before the government determines how to share intelligence with companies caught in hackers’ cyber cross hairs. It’s going to take at least a year — if not more — before Washington can articulate the improvements it hopes to see from power plants, the financial system and other forms of critical infrastructure. And any additional cybersecurity work on Capitol Hill won’t happen instantly.
“We didn’t get here overnight, and we’re not going to get ourselves out of this situation overnight,” said Michael Daniel, the White House’s lead cybersecurity adviser, at an event last week.
“We can’t do it without those stakeholders; we recognize we have to invest the time,” he said, noting the goal is “striking a balance between moving at the normal federal government speed” and the need for prompt action.
If anything, the slow wheels of the federal bureaucracy contrast greatly with the swift tidal wave of new stories and revelations about cyberattacks from China and elsewhere.
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