Public/Private Partnerships and Cybersecurity

Chuck Brooks

Named "Top Tech Person To Follow" by LinkedIn, Voted "Cybersecurity Person of the Year" Cited Top 10 Global Tech & Cyber Expert & Influencer, Georgetown U Prof, 2X Presidential Appointee, FORBES Writer, 121k LI Followers

Published May 27, 2022

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This issue is focused on the importance of public private partnerships (PPP) and cybersecurity. PPPS have become a hot topic in cybersecurity and with government. It is a mission now being prioritized by CISA DHS.

Public Private Partnerships And The Cybersecurity Challenge Of Protecting Critical Infrastructure by Chuck Brooks

Source: COGNITIVE WORLD on FORBES

Link: Public Private Partnerships And The Cybersecurity Challenge Of Protecting Critical Infrastructure — COGNITIVE WORLD

In the U.S., most of the critical infrastructure, including defense, oil and gas, electric power grids, health care, utilities, communications, transportation, education, banking and finance, is owned by the private sector (about 85 percent according to DHS) and regulated by the public sector. The public and private relationship in operating and protecting critical infrastructure requires a strong working partnership.

Protecting the critical infrastructure poses a difficult challenge because democratic societies by their nature are interactive, open and accessible. Because of the growing digital connectivity (and interdependence) of both IT and industrial control systems, critical infrastructure is facing an evolving and sophisticated array of cybersecurity challenges.

A recent survey of professionals in industries using industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) commissioned by Tenable from the Ponemon Institute found that 90 percent of respondents say their environment has been damaged by at least one cyberattack over the past two years, with 62 percent experiencing two or more attacks. The survey of security professionals also revealed that nine in 10 critical infrastructure providers have experienced cyberattacks that rendered their systems out of action in the last two years.

The global threat actors are terrorists, criminals, hackers, organized crime, malicious individuals, and, in some cases, adversarial nation states. Earlier this year it was revealed by security researchers from FireEye's Mandiant Incident Response and Intelligence team that Iran had engaged in a multi-year, global DNS hijacking campaign targeting telecommunications and internet infrastructure providers in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats recently stated that “the threat was growing for a devastating cyber assault on critical U.S. infrastructure, saying the ’warning lights are blinking red again‘ nearly two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks”.

Critical infrastructure is the core of our nations’ prosperity and well-being and addressing the threats to it requires incorporating a robust calculated security strategy of public and private sector partnering. Cybersecurity relies on the same security elements for protection as physical security: layered vigilance, readiness and resilience.

For example, energy security and the power grid requires private public cooperation and regulatory coordination among industry and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Defense (DOD). The power grid and other industrial infrastructure have been increasingly subjected to both physical and cybersecurity attacks in recent years. According to Israel Barak, CISO at Cybereason, "most countries are still vulnerable to cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure because the systems are generally old and poorly patched. Power grids are interconnected and thus vulnerable to cascading failures.”

Protecting critical ICS, OT, and IT systems from cybersecurity threats is a difficult endeavor. They all have unique operational frameworks, access points, and a variety of legacy systems and emerging technologies. The explosion of connected devices comprising the Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet of Things is daunting. The trends of integration of hardware and software combined with growing networked sensors are redefining the surface attack opportunities for hackers across all digital infrastructures.

According to the DHS Alert (TA17-293A) threat actors have targeted government entities and the energy, water, aviation, nuclear, and critical manufacturing sectors since at least 2017 and, in some cases, have leveraged their capabilities to compromise victims’ networks. Historically, cyber threat actors have targeted the energy sector with various results, ranging from cyber espionage to the ability to disrupt energy systems in the event of a hostile conflict. Analysis by DHS, FBI, and trusted partners has identified distinct indicators and behaviors related to this activity.

It's a global threat not just against the United States. In 2017, Hackers use Triton, a specialized malware to compromise critical safety systems at Schneider Electric. The malware is still being used to target industrial systems. Because of the sensitivity to the threats to national security and changing threat matrix of hackers augmented by newer technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, the government is prioritizing the importance of the risk management approach to defend against more sophisticated malware and automated attacks targeting critical infrastructure. An effective risk management approach necessitates information sharing that helps allow government and industry to keep abreast of the latest viruses, malware, phishing threats, ransomware, insider threats, and denial of service attacks. Information sharing also establishes working protocols for lessons-learned and resilience that is critical for the success of mitigating incidents.

A cornerstone of that approach is creating Public Private Partnerships (PPP) based upon risk management frameworks. A high level of public-private collaboration is needed to address growing cyber-threats. Preparation and commitment from both government and industry leadership is critical. Industry should collaborate with government to best utilize risk management models and prepare resiliency plans.

The specifics of an industry security approach may vary according to circumstances, but the mesh that connects the elements is situational awareness combined with systematic abilities for operational management and critical communications in cases of emergency.

In the federal civilian sector DHS’s new agency, Critical Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) puts a keen focus on DHS’s integral role in cyber preparedness, response and resilience for critical infrastructure. DHS has identified 16 infrastructures deemed critical because their physical and digital assets, systems, and networks are considered vital to national economic security, safety and national public health. CISA’s stated role is to coordinate “security and resilience efforts using trusted partnerships across the private and public sectors, and deliver training, technical assistance, and assessments to federal stakeholders as well as to infrastructure owners and operators nationwide.”

At DOD, Former Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and former Director of the National Security Agency hailed the importance of the public-private cybersecurity partnership stating that “collaboration is critical given growing threats to everyone from cyberspace.” DOD and the National Security Agency (NSA) are working closely with the private sector in information sharing and in developing solutions to evolving threats.

Whether the U.S. critical infrastructure protection security mission includes DHS, DOD, DOE, the intelligence community, or other government agencies, a public/private security strategy to meet growing challenges needs to be both comprehensive and adaptive. The same formula applies to other democratic nations sharing operations across industries and infrastructure.

In an ecosystem of both physical and digital connectivity, there will always be vulnerabilities, and a breach or failure could be catastrophic. Mitigating evolving threats and being resilient to breaches are paramount for critical infrastructure protection. There is little room for error and success in PPP is dependent on information sharing, planning, investment in emerging technologies, and allocation of resources coordinated by both the public and private sectors in special working partnerships.

Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and evangelist for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. He is also Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Applied Intelligence Program and graduate Cybersecurity Programs where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security, emerging tech, and cybersecurity. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn” out of their 550 million members.

Chuck was named by Thompson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer” in 2018. In both 2017 and 2016, he was named “Cybersecurity Marketer of the Year by the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, and a Contributor to FORBES.

Chuck is on the MIT Technology Review Advisory Global Panel, a member of The AFCEA Cybersecurity Committee, and as member of the Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Working Group. Chuck was also appointed as a Technology Partner Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s served as the Chairman of CompTIA’s New and Emerging Technology Committee, and as the lead Judge for the 2014,15,16, and 17 Government Security News Homeland Security News Awards evaluating top security technologies. In government, Chuck has received two senior Presidential appointments. Under President George W. Bush Chuck was appointed to The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the first Legislative Director of The Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. He also was appointed as Special Assistant to the Director of Voice of America under President Reagan. He served as a top Advisor to the late Senator Arlen Specter on Capitol Hill covering security and technology issues on Capitol Hill.

In media, Chuck is the featured Homeland Security contributor for Federal Times, featured cybersecurity contributor for High Performance Counsel on cybersecurity, and an advisor and contributor to Cognitive World, a leading publication on artificial intelligence. He has also appeared in Forbes and Huffington Post and has published more than 150 articles and blogs on cybersecurity, homeland security and technology issues. He has 45,000 followers on LinkedIn and runs a dozen LI groups, including the two largest in homeland security. In academia, Chuck is Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University teaching a course in homeland security risk management.

Follow Chuck on LinkedIn. Check out Chuck’s website.

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Link: cybersecurityworks.com

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Public and Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Model for Cybersecurity by Chuck Brooks

Public and Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Model for Cybersecurity - CyberTheory

A silver lining of the current Covid-19 pandemic has been the cooperation of industry and government who have been working closely together to bring solutions that alleviate supply shortages, and cultivate treatments to combat the lethal virus. Not since World War II have we witnessed such a monumental effort of companies adapting their manufacturing lines to build emergency medical products, and collaboratively work with public sector on the greater mission. This Covid-19 working model of addressing threats via Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) should be replicated to help meet the challenges of cyber-securing our digital world.

A higher level of public-private collaboration is needed to address growing cyber-threat landscape through Public Private Partnerships. The global threat actors targeting critical infrastructure are terrorists, criminals, hackers, organized crime, malicious individuals, and, in some cases, adversarial nation states. Addressing the threats requires incorporating a robust calculated security strategy of public and private sector partnering based on layered vigilance and protections, readiness, and resilience.

Phishing, malware ransomware, and denial of service attacks are means and methods hackers are using to attack both government and industry assets. Some of the specific cybersecurity areas a government public private partnership could collaborate to defend against those threats include: threat intelligence, data security, browser security, cloud security, container security, endpoint protection, identity, access management and authentication, mobility, and IoT Security. Cybersecurity awareness and training should also be part of the PPP equation.

The Covid-19 outbreak has compounded cyber-threats as both government agencies and companies have had to move their workforces to remote arrangements. Remote work has increased vulnerabilities in the digital attack surface ecosystem. There has been an uptick of Covid-19 themed phishing attacks aimed at workers using personal Wi-Fi networks with less cyber-protection outside their offices. More nefarious has been the spate of ransomware attacks directed against hospital and health care facilities during this pandemic.

As in the response to Covid-19, open communication and commitment from both government and industry leadership in cybersecurity is critical. Industry should regularly collaborate with government to best utilize risk management models and manage digital assets and productivity tools. Industry and government should also share resources for research and development and for rapid prototyping of potential cybersecurity technology solutions. This cooperation is especially valuable with artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5-G, Internet of Things with other emerging technologies that could enhance cybersecurity capabilities.

Critical infrastructure protection is a good example of where PPPs can provide impact in cybersecurity. In the U.S., most of the critical infrastructure, including defense, oil and gas, electric power grids, health care, utilities, communications, transportation, education, banking and finance, is owned by the private sector and regulated by the public sector.

Mitigating evolving threats and being resilient to breaches are paramount for critical infrastructure protection. PPPs are dependent on information sharing, planning, investment in emerging technologies, and allocation of resources (and roles and responsibilities) coordinated by both the public and private sectors in special working cybersecurity partnerships.

Many industry-specific public/private partnerships are now being facilitated via Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) that help critical infrastructure owners and operators (in coordination with government) protect their facilities, personnel and customers from cyber and physical security threats and other threats. Lessons learned from the current pandemic crisis can be assimilated into existing ISAC networks. More investment and industry participation is needed in these ISACs.

The Department of Defense (DOD) also works closely in industry to ensure the security of the defense industrial base. Cybersecurity collaboration is integral to this effort, especially in protecting logistics and the supply chain. The United States Transportation Command provides a good case study of effective PPPs. “USTRANSCOM encourages its commercial partners in the airline, marine, trucking and rail industries to voluntarily alert USTRANSCOM of threat-related information (cyber, social media, physical attack) that may be of widespread interest to other industries.”

The current Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated that collaboration between government and industry stakeholders is a model that makes good sense. The existing models employed by DHS, DOD and other government agencies, should be enhanced and accelerated in their applications to cybersecurity challenges. Through such expanded public private partnerships (PPPs) we can better share intelligence, identify product and policy solutions, align and evaluate technology gaps, and help design scalable architectures that will lead to greater efficiency in cybersecurity.

Chuck Brooks

CISO, Adjunct Faculty in the Graduate Cybersecurity Program at Georgetown University Chuck is a widely respected Cybersecurity thought leader, influencer, and technology evangelist. He is a featured writer/speaker/blogger on homeland security, cyber security, CBRNE, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), science & technology, public/private partnerships, Risk Management, blockchain, and security innovation. Chuck has been published in FORBES, Huffington Post, InformationWeek, MIT Sloan Blog, Computerworld, Federal Times, NextGov, Government Security News, Cygnus Security Media, Homeland Security Today (Visiting Editor), The Hill, Biometric Update, Bizcatalyst360, IT Security Planet, and the Christian Science Monitor. Chuck serves as the SME for Cybersecurity for the U.S. Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center, is a former Technology Partner Advisor at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, served on the EC-Council Global Advisory Board and the MIT Technology Review Advisory Board and is Chairman of the CompTIA New and Emerging Technologies committee. Chuck also served as the Vice President for Homeland Security for Xerox; the Vice President of Government Relations for SRA; and the Vice President R&D for Rapiscan. Chuck earned his undergraduate BS from DePauw University and a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Public, Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Cybersecurity Model

by William McCormick

Link: GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Public, Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Cybersecurity Model (executivegov.com)

Chuck Brooks, a highly esteemed cybersecurity leader as well as an influential member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program, recently published a recent feature in the fifth edition of the Security & Tech Insights newsletter.

In the feature story, GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks explored the implications and significant challenges of cybersecuring the Internet of Things. In addition, he also revealed how partnerships in the public and private sectors can provide a model for the federal government’s implementation of cybersecurity standards.

Here’s a snippet from the feature from GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks:

“A higher level of public-private collaboration is needed to address the growing cyber-threat landscape through Public-Private Partnerships,” Brooks explained. “The global threat actors targeting critical infrastructure are terrorists, criminals, hackers, organized crime, malicious individuals, and, in some cases, adversarial nation-states.

Addressing the threats requires incorporating a robust calculated security strategy of public and private sector partnering based on layered vigilance and protections, readiness and resilience.”

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Fast Tracking Our Tech Future With Government

by William Mcormick

Link: GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Fast Tracking Our Tech Future With Government - GovCon Wire

GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks has published his latest article as a member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program on Wednesday.

Brooks discussed the development and procurement of emerging technologies as they influence every sector of the federal marketplace, including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), academia and the intelligence community. You can read Chuck Brooks’ latest GovCon Expert article below:

Fast Tracking Our Tech Future With Government

By GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks

The development and procurement of emerging technologies is being institutionalized throughout government, particularly in national security areas. There are a variety of new initiatives and programs that have been created to ensure that the United States is prepared for a new era of technology leadership. If you are interested in transformative technologies, it is an exciting time to follow what is happening both in industry and in government.

In October, the White House released a strategy document called the National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies. The strategy document is designed to serve as a framework and promote the national security innovation base and protect U.S. technology advantage. The strategy, developed by the National Security Council, promotes public/private partnerships to bring commercial best practices and models to prototype and assimilate emerging science & technologies and welcomes guidance from industry, think tanks, and academia. It also recognized the need for robust R&D spending in agency federal budgets. It is an adaptive and living document.

There is an interesting breakdown of tech categories. Specifically, the first version of the document provides a list of 20 critical technologies. These include:

Advanced computing

Advanced conventional weapons technologies

Advanced engineering materials

Advanced manufacturing

Advanced sensing

Aero-engine technologies

Agricultural technologies

Artificial intelligence

Autonomous systems

Biotechnologies

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear mitigation technologies

Communication and networking technologies

Data science and storage

Distributed ledger technologies

Energy technologies

Human-machine interfaces

Medical and public health technologies

Quantum information science

Semiconductors and microelectronics

Space technologies

The Department of Defense

In parallel to the National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office issued a broad agency announcement in search of “proficient artificial intelligence; advantage in cyber operations; confidence in the information domain; and resilient, adaptable and secure systems.”

The tech fusion of multiple emerging technologies is a reoccurring them in many of these government initiatives, and DARPA has played a major role for innovation in the security arena since it was established in 1958. Their mission is “to prevent strategic surprise from negatively impacting U.S. national security and create strategic surprise for U.S. adversaries by maintaining the technological superiority of the U.S. military. As the DoD’s primary innovation engine, DARPA undertakes projects that are finite in duration but that create lasting revolutionary change.” DARPA’s mission is integral to the success of discovering and innovating emerging technologies.

Clearly, artificial intelligence is one of the priority emerging technologies of focus in both government and industry. The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is also focused on foraging for commercially available artificial intelligence technologies to use operations. JAIC said it is “specifically looking for tools that can improve the quality of DoD data, help explain AI’s decision-making, generate training data for AI, automatically label data, integrate AI with 5G capabilities, use AI for modeling and simulations and use AI for cybersecurity.” Funding for JAIC in AI is still in early stages but is already over $1 billion in 2020 FY DOD budgets.

The Department of Homeland Security

The Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security (S&T, DHS) was created at the inception of DHS in 2003. The Directorate has a unique mission. A core part of that mission “is to improve homeland security by working with partners to provide state-of-the-art technology and solutions to achieve their missions.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is involved in many areas of emerging technology development, primarily via the Science and Technology Directorate. DHS S&T works closely areas of technology foraging with the DOE National Labs and Federally Funded research and Development Centers (FFRDC’s). These include some of our nation’s most recognized national Labs including Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Argonne, Sandia, Idaho National laboratory, Battelle, and Brookhaven.

The benefits of the Labs’ role include experienced capability in rapid proto typing of new technologies ready for transitioning, showcasing, and commercialization. The National Labs host some of the best scientific minds on the planet. The Labs are a reservoir of specialized skills and capabilities that are now being tapped by the private sector and government agencies.

A good way to discover emerging technology priorities and opportunities is to visit the Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Long-Range Broad Agency Announcement (LRBAA) page, The LRBAA is a “standing, open invitation to the scientific and technical communities to fund pioneering research and development (R&D) projects in support of our nation’s security. Its purpose is to advance our scientific and technical knowledge and to apply such advances to the department’s operational environments.”

The Intelligence Community

The Intelligence Community is also active in seeking emerging technologies via public private partnerships. The Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARPA) is operated under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. IARPA “endeavors to counter new capabilities implemented by our adversaries that could threaten our ability to operate freely and effectively in a networked world. [tackle some of the most difficult] [?]

“IARPA is tasked to predict rapid changes in the information technology threat landscape and often solicits input from industry and academia. Key IARPA cybersecurity research focus areas include information assurance, advanced computing technologies and architectures, quantum information science and technology, and threat detection and mitigation. IARPA’s clients are the US intelligence community. The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) do have their own programs to discover and evaluate new technologies and work closely with IARPA.

Other Agencies:

Throughout government, many agencies are involved in developing new technologies. For example, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) are leading edge in developing medical technologies, genomic remedies and with biological research. The Department of Agriculture is bringing many innovations to food safety and farming, The Department of Transportation is working on autonomous cars, next gen trains, and The Department of Energy (DOE) is leading the way in quantum computing and materials science.

DOE is very involved in many of the DOD and DHS emerging tech initiatives because of their specialized expertise and their affiliation with the National Labs. To list highlights of the activities of many agencies in government might take a book.

Academia

Academia also plays a key role government in emerging technology development efforts. Numerous universities and colleges have invested in research and development in and have successfully commercialized security technologies. Many of the world’s leading academic institutions including MIT, Cal Tech, University of Chicago, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, John Hopkins, and others have contributed significantly with the creation of breakthrough technologies through basic and applied research. This is often done formally with government in designated centers of excellence, and with innovation hubs.

While national security is a predominant aspect of federal government spending and budgets, there are many societal benefits of developing emerging technologies. Christopher Darby, President and CEO of In-Q-Tel summed up those implications in testimony at a Congressional hearing earlier this year. He said that “Too often at the policy level, in the U.S. we view technology as purely an enabler of military capability.

Technology, however, also projects economic power, facilitates societal stability (or instability), and reflects norms and values. Importantly, we must also acknowledge that today it is commercial technology that provides the foundation upon which nations are built. That foundation is comprised of such things as communications networks, computing infrastructure, power grids, as well as healthcare and financial systems.”

It is reassuring to see government in cooperation with the private sector pursue strategies an programs among an array of emerging technologies in important areas such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, augmented reality, robotics, materials science, renewable energies, big data & analytics, 5G, and of course physical and digital security. Continued collaboration and investment will accelerate the pace of innovation and fast track our transforming technological future.

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Cyber Hygiene and Government–Industry Cooperation for Better Cybersecurity

The CyberAvengers*

This photo shows cables attached to a protective cybersecurity system during the International Cybersecurity Forum, held in France. Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

Link: Cyber Hygiene and Government–Industry Cooperation for Better Cybersecurity – BRINK – Conversations and Insights on Global Business (brinknews.com)

This past month cybersecurity legislation, called Promoting Good Cyber Hygiene Act of 2017, was introduced that would mandate the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish baseline best practices for good cyber hygiene, authentication and cooperation.

Specifically the legislation states that the list of best practices established “shall be published in a clear and concise format and made available prominently on the public websites of the Federal Trade Commission and the Small Business Administration.” It also recommends including “other standard cybersecurity measures to achieve trusted security in the infrastructure.”

This introduction of the legislation is timely and follows an expanding trend of public–private cooperation. In February of 2013, Presidential Policy Directive-21 was issued to provide an approach to developing standards and enhancing information sharing with critical infrastructure owners and operators. The executive order was aimed at identifying vulnerabilities, ensuring security, and integrating resilience in the public–private cyber ecosystem.

Subsequently, the National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014 became law to help provide a roadmap for the roles of DHS and stakeholders. The law authorized the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center’s current activities to share cybersecurity information and analysis with the private sector, provide incident response and technical assistance to companies and federal agencies, and recommend security measures to enhance cybersecurity.

Collaboration is Key

Certainly, information collaboration is a key component of any successful cybersecurity initiative effort, and the relationship between industry and government is no exception. Recently, DHS in cooperation with NIST developed guidelines for information sharing among several industry sectors with government. The benefits are evident. Information sharing allows both government and industry to keep abreast of the latest viruses, malware, phishing threats, and especially denial of service attacks. Information sharing also establishes working protocols for resilience and forensics, which is critical for the success of commerce and enforcement against cybercrimes.

Because of privacy and intellectual property issues, the private sector appeared reluctant to share established protocols, data and lessons learned with other industry players and government. Both government and commerce are now prioritizing critical infrastructure as the primary focus of threat and response. There is a growing understanding of the seriousness and sophistication of the threats from adversarial actors that include states, organized crimes, and loosely affiliated hackers. This budding government–industry relationship still needs to be expanded and enhanced, especially in regard to critical infrastructure—85 percent of which is owned and operated by the private sector.

A closer partnership between governments and the private sector could help produce tactical and long-term strategic cybersecurity solutions quicker. Cooperative research and development in new technologies such as hardware, software algorithms and operational processes are needed just to keep up with the evolving global threat matrix. There are no areas on the cybersecurity spectrum that do not need more investment and modernization to help fill capability gaps. The Science and Technology Directorate at DHS operates several programs and projects facilitating public–private cooperation in R&D, tech prototyping, and commercialization. These programs and projects need to be expanded and provided with more funding resources.

Keeping up with cybersecurity threats is often daunting. There are a wide variety of architectures, systems, and jurisdictions, and adaptability and scalability to upgrade to new security technologies and processes is a significant challenge. The Internet of Things (IoT), which relies on the interoperability of a plethora of devices, platforms, and protocols, is a good example of the complexities involved.

The Internet of Things era could become the Internet of Threats era if cybersecurity safeguards aren’t put in place.

One of the priorities of the proposed legislation is to study cybersecurity threats relating to IoT devices. According to one of the bill’s key sponsors, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., “The Internet of Things era could morph into the Internet of Threats era if appropriate cybersecurity safeguards are not put in place now to protect consumers.”

The legislation’s title, Promoting Good Cyber Hygiene Act of 2017, is instructive in itself: Regardless of location, any government or private organization’s cyber-hygiene mantra should include:

1) Update and patch your networks, operating system and devices promptly. “Critical” is “critical” for a reason. Do it within 72 hours of release.

2) Train your employees on how to detect spear-phishing attempts and what best social media practices are. Quarterly training can reduce the risk by up to 90 percent in most cases.

3) Use multifactor authentication. We have effectively reached the age of password uselessness due to our poor habits. Passwords slow down bad guys who do not know what they are doing. Biometric solutions are great, but proceed with caution if you go this route because you now have data management and privacy concerns that must be addressed.

4) Back up regularly (daily if feasible). Where possible, use the “1, 2, 3” backup rule: 1. a segmented backup on-site; 2. one off-site; and 3. one in the cloud. No need to pay the ransom if you have a clean backup ready to be uploaded to your system.

5) Be cautious with older systems. Yes, older systems can be repaired. However, the upfront capital cost is not always affordable. The critical issue becomes support (patches) for these system stops. If these systems are past their “patch life” they become tempting targets for hackers.

6) Follow-on to the last point, sometimes the best answer is the cloud. Cloud service providers have state of the art hardware and software and cloud migrations have become easier, especially over the last two years. The cloud is not a savior—it comes with other issues, such as needing to learn what your obligations and responsibilities are, ensuring you have robust agreements with your vendors, and knowing what third-party sources will have access to your information.

7) Know how your intrusion detection and prevention system works. Is it signature-based? Perhaps it is behavioral-based? Maybe it is both? New cyber threats require new tools. This is where machine learning, cognitive computing, AI, automation, and orchestration all come into play (but only when done in tandem with all other techniques discussed here). Internet data traffic has reached the stage where humans aren’t able to do this on their own.

8) Consider a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). Cybersecurity is not everybody’s strength, but one ransomware attack could be crushing. There are options out there to help you. Sure, it costs money, but you are buying peace of mind. Do your homework and find the right solution for you.

9) Do you drive your car without insurance? Cyber insurance is not mandatory yet, but it may be in the future. Chances are if you are doing a lot of what is suggested here, premium payments will be at the lower end.

It clearly makes sense for both industry and government to work together, especially on cyber hygiene, and also to share lessons learned on threats and procurements of mitigating technologies and processes. The newly proposed legislation is a continued step in the right direction.

* The CyberAvengers are a self-described “group of salty and experienced professionals who have decided to work together to help keep this nation and its data safe and secure.” The group includes BRINK’s cybersecurity columnist Chuck Brooks, vice president for Government Relations & Marketing for Sutherland Global Services; Paul Ferrillo, counsel in Weil’s Litigation Department and part of its Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Information Management Practice; Kenneth Holley, founder of Information Systems Integration, focusing on infrastructure security and data analytics; George Platsis, 15-year veteran of the private, public and nonprofit sectors; Shawn Tuma, 25 years in banking, trading, asset management and auditing at GE, Citigroup, State Street Global Advisors and Nomura Securities; and Christophe Veltsos, a cyber risk advisor and professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

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PERSPECTIVE: Honor Native Americans’ Security Contributions with More Cyber Training

By Chuck Brooks

Link: Honor Native Americans' Security Contributions with More Cyber Training (hstoday.us)

Capt. Travis Trueblood, 11th Wing assistant staff judge advocate, holds a piece of pottery at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Nov. 16, 2017. The pottery was gifted to Trueblood by a member of the Choctaw and Seminole Nations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Michael Murphy)

Native American contributions to U.S. national security have been largely unheralded. Native Americans have served in the U.S. Armed Forces in every major military conflict since the Revolutionary War. Twenty-eight Native Americans have the earned the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for military valor. The Navajo Code Talkers of World War II played an amazing role in helping the U.S. and allies achieve victory. Today over 24,000 Native Americans serve in the Armed Forces and have the highest per capita rate of military service of any ethnic group protecting the homeland. And more than 150,000 veterans self-identify as American Indian or Alaska Native.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has been asked, by Congress, to establish a National Native American Veterans Memorial, to give “all Americans the opportunity to learn of the proud and courageous tradition of service of Native Americans in the Armed Forces of the United States.”

This proud tradition of service is also exemplified at the Department of Homeland Security. The agency maintains the Tribal Desk within the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as the designated lead for tribal relations and consultation at the DHS. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have especially strong tribal partnerships within the agency.

CBP has worked closely with Native American leaders to strengthen security along both the Southwest and Northern borders; many of the Border Patrol sectors encompass Indian Country that is adjacent to U.S. borders. Cooperation between DHS and tribal police has significantly impacted border security, especially in remote areas where drug smugglers and other illegally seeking to enter the U.S. operate. Native American lands also contain many critical infrastructures such as dams, power transmission facilities, oil and gas fields, railroads, and interstate highways that are potential terrorist targets. Ongoing programs and projects at DHS have been established to maximize cooperation between federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement to protect these vital assets.

Gary Edwards, CEO of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association (NNALEA), states that there are 25 tribal reservations located on and/or across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico and 41 tribal reservations are within 100 miles of those international U.S. borders. Since Native Americans are around a large part of our borders, they are, and should continue to be, a part of our border security initiatives.

Cooperation between DHS and Native Americans has already played a significant role in our boarder security, especially in remote areas where drug smugglers try to enter the U.S. illegally. The “Shadow Wolves” are an elite group of Native American trackers who are part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since 1972, the Shadow Wolves have been tracking drug smugglers attempting to cross the border by looking for footprints, tire tracks, items snagged on branches, bent or broken twigs, or even a single fiber of cloth. Their patrol area covers 2,800,000 acres and officers estimated recently they have seized an average of 60,000 pounds of illegal drugs a year.

FEMA is also engaged with Native Americans primarily to help prepare for emergency response. FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) has been active in training Native Americans from 23 American Indian tribes and 10 states in preparation for mass casualty responses to natural or man-made disasters. This training included operating command center communications as well as medical and public healthcare operations. These realistic scenarios are also becoming part of online coursework and will no doubt improve protection of both people and land.

Almost a decade ago, DHS unveiled a department initiative calling for increased engagement with federally recognized tribes across the United States – building on “current tribal partnerships to protect the safety and security of all people on tribal lands and throughout the nation.” The agency solicited feedback from all 564 federally recognized tribes on the plan. The plan called for hiring a dedicated tribal liaison in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to serve as a central point of contact for tribal governments and coordinate the work of the tribal liaisons across the department; dedicating staff resources to tribal engagement and enhancing training for DHS tribal liaisons and other employees who regularly engage tribal governments and representatives; promoting the incorporation of tribal public safety and law enforcement agencies into state and local fusion centers; developing a Tribal Resource Guide for tribal leadership highlighting pertinent DHS programs and initiatives; collaborating with tribal governments in the development of DHS policies that have tribal implications; and working across the federal government to formalize a “one-stop shop” for tribal governments for emergency management mitigation, planning, response and recovery efforts.

The DHS Tribal Consultation Policy is a great foundation to expand on cooperation with Native American tribes. There is a major shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers at DHS while its mandate is increasing in scope and responsibilities. It would be great if a serious effort were made by Congress and the agency to cultivate the next generation of cybersecurity experts from many of the economically depressed areas within Indian Country.

There is already a working model in government for this kind of investment: the Department of Homeland Security’s veterans cyber hiring pilot, which was designed to build the department’s cyber workforce and enhance opportunities for veterans to continue to serve our country in cybersecurity. Hopefully DHS can emulate the success of the veteran cybersecurity program for Native Americans.

Investment by government, industry, and academia in training Native Americans in an accelerated cybersecurity curriculum combined with real-world experience via internships and fellowships would bring high dividends to cyber readiness down the line. At the same time, it would bolster the nation’s pipeline for skilled digital workers. The further engagement of Native American tribal partners who have a strong, proven heritage of dedication and service will be a blessing to the future of homeland security. As the digital realm becomes part of the homeland security imperative, it would be very beneficial to have more Native Americans contributing to cybersecurity and other security efforts. DHS and Native Americans have a special partnership that needs to be celebrated and enhanced.

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Author: Chuck Brooks

Link: Strengthening The U.S. Federal Cybersecurity Workforce by Chuck Brooks - The First Global Cyber Security Observatory (cyberstartupobservatory.com)

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What You Can Learn from Public/Private Partnerships

3 lessons from what powerful partnerships can create.

by Chuck Brooks

Link: What You Can Learn from Public/Private Partnerships - Government Executive (govexec.com)

The Internet was invented in a government laboratory, but it was the corporate vision that had it commercialized and institutionalized. It’s a great example of how the public and private sectors can work as partners in innovation, and advance a new era of social and technological change.

The best part: Both sides win.

These types of partnerships can fail as spectacularly as they succeed. But to make a partnership successful and work faster, smarter and better, a few things have to happen. These can also be applied outside of the public/private space.

Collaborate

Stakeholders will simplify operations if they share information. Administrative complexity and technological redundancy can be your biggest bugaboos. For example, when government and private stakeholders share information – and risk – the resulting innovation can benefit key areas that include homeland/national security, health and human services, energy, public safety and transportation.

Share Best Practices

Don’t reinvent the wheel. For public/private projects, private sector companies offer a playbook for successful innovation through lessons-learned and best practices. They can balance costs and benefits — a skill learned from the necessity of competitive markets where budgets are connected to solutions. Government agencies can tap this experience to identify products, evaluate gaps in technology or design flexible solutions that promote positive change.

Tap Into Existing R&D Resources

The sequestration and budget constraints have undermined the federal government’s research and development capabilities. Funding for R&D has shifted to rapid prototyping and procurement of “off the shelf” technologies and services. However, R&D spending in the private sector continues to move apace, because corporations must develop new technologies in order to be competitive.

Companies can help make up the government shortfalls by sharing their R&D capabilities. Combining funding and pipelines for research in the public and private sectors can also provide a sustainable, competitive bridge for the next generation of scientists and engineers who will lead and achieve.

Strengthening the public/private partnership through open collaboration, best practices, and shared research and development will help accelerate the innovation we need to meet our challenges. It’s not a nice-to-have: It’s an imperative if you want to be competitive in the U.S. and abroad.

Charles (Chuck) Brooks has an extensive experience in executive management, government relations, and R&D in the public and private sectors.

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Embracing Global Public/Private Cybersecurity Alliances

by| Chuck Brooks

Link: Embracing Global Public/Private Cybersecurity Alliances | AT&T Cybersecurity (att.com)

In an increasingly connected world, threats of cyber-attacks are growing in complexity and volume. As we have discovered in the past few years, much of the global critical infrastructure is using aging legacy systems and is largely unprotected against sophisticated breaches. The world’s critical infrastructure, that includes the health, financial, commerce, and transportation sectors, needs better cybersecurity protection.

Because of the rapidly changing cyber threat environment, it has become an imperative for governments, and industry to collaborate and cooperate. To best prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents, we must include a new cooperative paradigm. The new global model should include information sharing, cooperative research, development and rapid deployment, and enhanced cybersecurity alliances.

Information Sharing:

Information is a first step. In the past couple of years, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with Congressional and private sector support has developed guidelines for information sharing among several sectors with industry. Information sharing helps allow both government and industry to keep abreast of the latest viruses, malware, phishing threats, and especially denial of service attacks. Information sharing also establishes working protocols for resilience and forensics that is critical for the success of commerce and enforcement against cyber-crimes.

Both the US and EU have reached out in recent years to the private sector to establish priorities, protocols for information sharing, and lines of communication to respond to potential incidents. The fact is that 85% of the World Wide Web and most of the world’s critical infrastructure is owned and operated by private sector companies. Many of the recent cyber breach attacks against multi-nationals have been successful, including in banking, health, and retail that impacts the economic system and citizens around the globe.

Cooperative Research, Development and Rapid Deployment:

Keeping up with cybersecurity threats is often daunting and requires a holistic effort. There are a wide variety of architectures, systems, and jurisdictions and adaptability and scalability to upgrade to new security technologies and processes is a significant challenge.

While there is an array of promising technologies being developed, there are is no immediate technological panacea to stop intrusion. But there are promising technologies that include better encryption, biometrics, smarter analytics, automated network security. Informed risk management planning, training, network monitoring, and incorporating Next Gen layered hardware/software technologies for the enterprise network, payload, and endpoint security. All of these are all components of what can be improved via cooperative efforts in research, development, and deployment efforts.

Enhanced Cybersecurity Alliances:

Currently, there are few established international norms to collectively combat cybercrime against critical infrastructures on the global scale. There is a need to include governments and industries to discuss scenarios and establish protocols for policy and action in regard to the evolving threat matrix and the potential spiraling effects of cybersecurity incidents.

The United States has made a concerted effort to establish allied cybersecurity alliances that include informational sharing and technological development in recent years. Some of these bilateral efforts include creating advanced working partnerships with the UK, Israel, India, Canada, Germany, Estonia, and others.

It is smart to utilize the collective talent and research and development arms of allied countries. Public to Private sector cooperation should be an integral part of alliances. Just a few weeks ago, Britain's top spy agency, GCHQ, disclosed two software vulnerabilities to Apple that could corrupt memory or leave devices vulnerable to botnets.

Cooperation need not only be in information sharing and technology areas but also in internet freedom/human rights, governance, cybercrime, international security, and privacy. These latter topics also require engagement with non-allied countries such as Russia, China, and many others. Embracing Global Public/Private Cybersecurity Alliances is a positive step in making us all safer.

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Creating resilience with public/private partnerships—and planning by Chuck Brooks

MIT Sloan Executive Education-- Guest post by Chuck Brooks

Originally published by MIT Sloan at: http://executive.mit.edu/blog/creating-resilience-with-public-private-partnershipsand-planning#.WCXuevkrLIU

Public/private partnerships are critical to the success of government operations that provide essential services and benefits. Such partnerships can help agencies reduce costs, simplify operations, and are easily scalable at times of increased and decreased need. Whether motivated by a natural disaster, terrorism, or an interruption caused by legislative shortfall, successful public/private partnerships can provide business continuity and resilience.

Given that most of the infrastructure in the U.S. is private, government has a need to coordinate with the private sector for maintaining critical transportation modes, IT, and communications support, allowing these agencies to keep preparedness at high levels. The private sector can also bolster humanitarian efforts with supplies of needed food, water, and provisions.

The Importance of Contingency Planning

Functional communications are the key element that enables government and its constituents to be resilient. Planning and protocols can be prepared in advance to ensure that systematic workflow and logistical operations that support vital programs are in place and tested . For example, recent weather-related emergencies have led to the adoption of a surge capacity in call centers that support federal pensions, social security, and disabilities during tornado and hurricane seasons. In addition, government continuity planning for processing of transactions and forms has also become more manageable because of public/private sector collaboration. These collaborations rely on best commercial practices and automation technologies to ensure that customer services function smoothly in a time of crisis. Private sector companies such as Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and Xerox work closely with financial and security related agencies in the government, including the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.

The federal government’s intelligence, defense, homeland security, and law enforcement communities must remain operational, especially during a natural disaster or terrorism event. Dealing with interoperable communications issues and logistics can be a difficult challenge. The Boston Marathon bombings from last year exemplified how important planning in logistics and communications are between federal, state, and local government as well as with law enforcement and the community. Because Boston officials had worked out protocols among local law enforcement and various agencies (both governmental and non-governmental), the pursuit of the Boston Marathon terrorists was organized and less disruptive.

Planning for the continuation of essential constituent needs and security functions is imperative to overcome hardships, inconveniences, and disasters. The tested model for enabling resiliency is private/public sector cooperation. It is a model that can and must be expanded for both emergency and non-emergency scenarios.

Chuck spoke on cybersecurity at the MIT Open Innovations Forum, the premier summit for technology, investment, and entrepreneurship

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PERSPECTIVE: Innovative Public-Private Partnerships Help Secure Critical Infrastructure

By Tom Cellucci

Link: Innovative Public-Private Partnerships Secure Critical Infrastructure (hstoday.us)

Federal, state and local governments frequently face complex problems that require cost effective and efficient solutions that are often constrained by both time and fiscal pressures that are becoming more commonplace across numerous government agencies. The objective of this article is to share–in an open and transparent way–how to transfer to government and the private sector best practices that were (and continue to be) developed and implemented in the Federal government to leverage marketing and purchasing power to rapidly increase the deployment of a wide range of technologies and products to protect our Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CIKR), all to the benefit of the taxpayer.

Most government entities do not recognize, let alone leverage, their true market attractiveness to the private sector. Experience has shown that the private sector is ready, willing and able to assist the government if they are provided two things—neither of which are money. The first deals with the ability to articulate in a clear and concise way what a given problem is (through the use of detailed operational requirements) and the second is a conservative estimate of the potential available market. Previously developed models and programs, such as the System Efficacy through Commercialization, Utilization, Relevance and Evaluation (SECURE) program at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), substantially increased awareness of business opportunities to a broad spectrum of solution providers across a broad range of industries. It should be obvious upon completion of this article that programs like SECURE and now others, which are now popping up throughout the US Government, represent an ideal process for leveraging the potential available market represented by users of products and services germane to CIKR communities across the United States.

The real challenge for federal, state and local government officials is to work as a group to prioritize and articulate the unsatisfied needs/wants of their particular CIKR sectors/regions. The author has written previously about efforts to identify potential solutions that will assist communities recover from natural or manmade disasters to demonstrate how innovative public-private partnerships work. Government officials and first responders realized that providing potable water to affected communities is one of the most important functions to restore after a disaster. These same officials also recognize significant shortcomings with traditional water delivery methods, such as trucking in bottled water or operating large, diesel-powered water purification systems. See entries in the Bibliography section of this article to learn about the Commercial Applications Requirements Document (CARD) to describe these detailed operational requirements. DHS, through utilization of its SECURE program, had aided several state and local government officials by developing detailed operational requirements, concepts-of-operations and a conservative estimate of the potential available market (PAM) for products/services needed collectively by communities at the local, tribal, state and federal levels. This program (and new ones being developed) ensures that public officials work closely with the private sector through partnership models like the SECURE program to obtain the highest performance/price products and/or services– at a speed-of-execution not typically seen in the public sector. This article also summarizes a substantial collection of publications (see Bibliography) that substantiate these models, as well as provides many useful templates and guides to make these public-private processes simple and easy to use.

Let’s now examine how to leverage the free market system to develop solutions to well-articulated problems in the area of CIKR. It all starts with two types of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The first PPP is to generate detailed requirements specifically for the CIKR community that DHS developed during the first and second Bush Administrations through special legislation and the second PPP is to rapidly develop technologies/products/services to meet those requirements.

Department of Homeland Security’s Interaction with the CIKR Community

The National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) manages many aspects of the planning and preparedness functions of DHS. NPPD is comprised of a number of offices that effectively outreach and connect with several functional areas across the homeland security mission space important in the daily operations of the country. NPPD oversees the coordinated operational and policy functions of the Directorate’s subcomponents – Cyber Security and Communications (CS&C), Infrastructure Protection (IP), Risk Management and Analysis (RMA), and the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program – in support of the Department’s critical mission.

IP leads the coordinated national program to reduce risks to the nation’s CIKR posed by acts of terrorism and to strengthen national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster or other emergency. This is a complex mission. CIKR range from the nation’s electric power, food and drinking water to its national monuments, telecommunications and transportation systems, chemical facilities and much more. The vast majority of national CIKR is privately owned and operated, making public-private partnerships essential to protect CIKR and respond to events.

IP manages mission complexity by breaking it down into three broad areas: Identify and analyze threats and vulnerabilities; Coordinate nationally and locally through partnerships with both government and private sector entities that share information and resources; and Mitigate risk and effects (encompasses both readiness and incident response).

National Infrastructure Protection Plan and the Public-Private Partnership Model

The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) was created to codify the nation’s action plan to provide for CIKR resiliency, protection and preparedness. The goal of the NIPP was to build a safe, more secure and more resilient America by enhancing protection of the nation’s CIKR to prevent, deter, neutralize or mitigate the effects of deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate, or exploit them; and to strengthen national preparedness, timely response and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster or other emergency. The NIPP structure provided a foundation for strengthening disaster response and recovery. The CIKR Support Annex to the National Response Framework (NRF) provides a bridge between the NIPP “steady-state” processes for infrastructure protection and the NRF unified approach to domestic incident management. These documents provided the overarching doctrine that ensures full integration of the two vital homeland security mission areas – critical infrastructure protection and domestic incident management. The ways in which CIKR are interrelated creates additional challenges from cascading effects in the event of a disruption to sectors of CIKR.

Critical infrastructure protection is a shared responsibility among federal, state, local and tribal governments, as well as the owners and operators of the nation’s CIKR. Partnership between the public and private sectors is essential, in part because the private sector owns and operates approximately 85% of the nation’s critical infrastructure, while government agencies have access to critical threat information and each controls security programs, research and development and other resources that may be more effective, if discussed and shared, as appropriate in a partnership setting. For reference, see a listing of the 18 sectors normally described as the components of the CIKR community in the United States:

The NIPP Partnership Model provides a forum through which the diverse community of infrastructure protection providers can collaborate and share information to discuss requirements identification, planning and policy coordination. This unique set of infrastructure protection providers encompasses groups of CIKR owners and operators along with government officials at all levels. See Figure 1 for the structure of the NIPP Partnership Model

Under the NIPP, a Sector-Specific Agency (SSAs) is the assigned federal agency to lead a collaborative process for infrastructure protection for each of the eighteen sectors. The comprehensive NIPP framework allows IP to provide the cross-sector coordination and collaboration needed to set national priorities, goals and requirements for effective allocation of resources. More importantly, the NIPP framework integrates a broad range of CIKR public and private protection activities.

The SSAs provide guidance about the NIPP framework to state, territorial, tribal and local homeland security agencies and personnel. They coordinate NIPP implementation within the sector, which involves developing and sustaining partnerships and information-sharing processes, as well as assisting with contingency planning and incident management.

IP serves as the SSA for six of the eighteen CIKR sectors. IP works closely with SSAs of the other twelve CIKR sectors to implement the NIPP. This frequently involves addressing cross-sector vulnerabilities and working to achieve cross-sector program efficiencies. The sectors for which IP serves as the SSA are italicized.

An important facet of these sectors is the creation of Cross-Sector Councils. The many ways in which CIKR are interrelated creates additional challenges from cascading effects in the event of a disruption to various CIKR sectors. The collaborative nature of Cross-Sector Councils benefits gathering not only information on those cascading effects and interdependencies, but also provides insight into commonly shared requirements that may be addressed by similar solutions. This information provides significant details to solution developers into the detailed problem description as well as opens opportunities for the deployment of multi-use technologies and a reduction in redundant programs that solve similar problems.

Working through these sectors, IP assists NIPP stakeholders in identification and articulation of strategic R&D needs. IP oversees the collection, distribution and prioritization of sector requirements for all eighteen sectors. IP also facilitates the coordination of addressing the needs of these stakeholders with other Department organizational elements to address identified capability gaps. An analysis of the stakeholders of these CIKR markets shows that there are many CIKR owners and operators who need to be able to engage with DHS to convey their requirements. These sectors also represent large user groups that often require widely distributed products and services to meet their needs nation-wide.

These sectors play a critical role in the understanding of capability gaps and requirements experienced by the CIKR owners and operators. This direct interaction between the Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) provides opportunities for these groups to develop a common understanding of current challenges facing the sectors. This partnership model allows for “bottoms-up requirements gathering” that can be shared through the well-defined process and reach those groups able to act upon the gathered information. IP has a close relationship with several organizational elements throughout the Department to not only find common requirements and capability gaps, but also to work with those best able to develop and deploy technological solutions to those in need.

Private-Public Partnerships Are the Future

A public-private partnership is an agreement between a public agency and a private sector entity that combines skills and resources to develop a technology, product and/or service that improves the quality of life for the general public. The private sector has been called upon numerous times to use its resources, skills and expertise to perform specific tasks in support of the public sector. Historically, the public sector has frequently taken an active role in spurring technological advances by directly funding the private sector to fulfill a specialized need that the public sector cannot complete itself.

The public sector has found it necessary to take this active role to lead and enable the development of a needed technology or capability in situations where the business case for the private sector’s investment in a certain area is not apparent. In these cases, the public sector relied on the private sector to develop mission-critical capabilities, but had to pay the private sector to divert its valuable (and limited) resources to an area that did not necessarily show a strong potential to provide an acceptable return-on-investment (ROI) for a given company. These situations could be caused by a number of issues ranging from a high cost to perform the research and development (R&D) to a limited PAM that may have prevented the company from making sufficient profit and returns to the company and its shareholders.

Increasingly, however, users in the public sector are now viewed as stable markets – i.e., a sizeable enough customer base for the private sector to warrant investments of time and money. A commercialization-based public-private partnership has the same goal as more traditional public-private partnerships, but the method is constructed to leverage positive attributes of the free market system. The introduction of a commercialization-based public-private partnership, developed and implemented at DHS, provides benefits for three constituents of the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE): the private sector, the public sector and the taxpayer. This is a desirable scenario creating a “win-win-win” environment in which all participants are in a position to benefit.

In the free market system, private sector companies and businesses must commercialize and sell products and services that consumers want to purchase. Commercialization is defined as the process of developing markets and producing and delivering products and/or services to address the needs of those targeted markets. The development and understanding of specific markets are a critical undertaking for many companies seeking to gain share of a market, with companies directing significant amounts of money and resources to these activities in addition to its product development efforts. Sometimes companies do not understand the correct needs or demand data of a market or market segment and their product(s) does not sell well. The company’s investment in designing, manufacturing and advertising the product can be, and is in many cases, a waste of time and money if the company “misses the mark.”

What a commercialization-based public-private partnership offers to the private sector is detailed information and opportunity. The public sector is not only the “consumer” in this free market scenario, but an informed and communicative consumer who is capable of giving the private sector a detailed description of what they need, as well as insight into which agencies and user communities would be interested in potentially purchasing a product/service that fulfills these requirements. While it remains prudent business to verify the information provided by the public sector, there is considerable value for the private sector to obtain these details from DHS because four things are provided to the private sector that would not happen in normal market dynamics: 1) a decrease in resources spent researching the market; 2) an increase in available time and money that can now be focused on product design and manufacturing; 3) a reduction in risk of the research data being incorrect; and 4) a conservative estimate as to how large the potential market can be for a known and funded entity.

The development and communication of detailed requirements or needs is the real cornerstone to the success of these public-private partnerships. The public sector’s ability to articulate the needs of its stakeholders will catalyze and support the future actions of the partnership. Requirements definition creates a method in which appropriate decisions about product/ system functionality and performance can be made prior to significant investments in time and money to develop it. Effective communication with, and access to, the stakeholders of a given agency will bring greater clarity and understanding to the challenges that they face. Understanding requirements early in the search for solutions removes a great deal of guesswork in the planning stages and helps to ensure that the end-users and product developers are “on the same page.” The Requirements Hierarchy (see Figure 2) shows how the definition of requirements must remain traceable to an overall mission by ensuring a focus toward a common, well-articulated goal.

Figure 2. This “Requirements Hierarchy” shows the evolution of requirements from a broader, high-level macro set of operational requirements to a low-level micro set of technical requirements. Note that each lower level requirement stems directly from its higher requirement so that all requirements are traceable to the Overall Mission.

In this partnership model, the proactive articulation and sharing of requirements or needs provides the necessary starting point to begin effective communication with potential private sector partners. Openly publishing the needs or requirements of public sector stakeholders has a number of ancillary benefits. A common challenge for solution developers has been a general lack of insight into the exact needs of public sector stakeholders. Instead, the private sector attempts to develop solutions to problems that may not exist and try to sell products based on the merit of its capabilities and features rather than its ability to solve the specific problem of the users. This is a situation commonly referred to as solution push where “a solution defines a problem” that it can solve, rather than the problem guiding the development of a solution to close a capability gap.

Requirements provide criteria against which potential solutions can be tested and evaluated. They offer detailed metrics that can be used to objectively measure and verify a possible solution’s effectiveness. Detailed operational requirements guide product development so that solutions’ specifications actively and demonstrably solve the stated problem(s). The effective articulation of requirements creates the mindset in which fulfilling requirements becomes the focus of product development. DHS has developed a number of reference guides and resources to assist with the development and articulation of detailed requirements. See the Bibliography for more information.

Department of Homeland Security Now Leverages Public-Private Partnerships

It becomes increasingly important for the public sector to make wise investments of its time, money and resources. Most government agencies do not have the budgets necessary to complete every research and development project that they would like to undertake. The effective prioritization of programs is critical to managing the limited resources available to various agencies. Rigorously developed requirements for each project facilitate these prioritization efforts and increase the ability to perform critical Analyses of Alternatives (AoAs) used in determining the best course of action to solve a problem. In support of this analysis, “technology foraging “will uncover a great deal of information on potential solutions that may already exist and is a necessary consideration before pursuing a commercialization-based public-private partnership. When successful, the option to utilize commercialization-based public-private partnerships to solve a problem frees resources for those projects that cannot be addressed without significant government involvement and expenditure of resources.

The SECURE program was developed as a way to address requests for assistance from DHS stakeholders to find better solutions to their problems. These stakeholders were used to a culture where vendors present “solutions looking for problems” and wanted to find a better way to not only have solutions developed to address their needs, but also to have some assurance that the products being sold to them have been thoroughly tested and evaluated in real operational environments.

The SECURE Program (and new programs popping up in other parts of the government) represented an efficient and cost-effective program to foster cooperative “win-win” partnerships between DHS and the private sector. The Department works with the private sector to develop products, systems or services aligned to the needs of its operating components, first responders and critical infrastructure/key resources (CIKR) owners and operators, representing in many cases, large potential available markets. DHS posts detailed operational requirements, to include key performance parameters and the concepts of operations (CONOPS), in the form of a Commercial Applications Requirements Document (CARD) on its public web site to articulate specific requirements in conjunction with a conservative estimate of the PAM of a given product, system or service. This requirements-led method places the users’ need at the center of all future actions so that solutions are developed and delivered rapidly and efficiently.

Private sector entities possessing technologies or products that are at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or above that are aligned to these posted requirements can use this valuable information to generate a business case and develop (at their cost) a fully deployable product or service after their study and verification of a given solution’s market potential. The Department assures that a TRL-9 or fully deployable product or service has demonstrated operational performance that meets a given private sector entity’s published specifications through the public sector’s review of recognized third-party independent testing data to eventually certify a product or service. This enables the private sector, through the free market system, to develop products and services that capture significant revenue opportunities and demonstrates to potential purchasers that the product does what it claims to do.

The success of the SECURE program was the result of effective communication and fostering cooperative relationships that focus on measurable results. DHS’s Commercialization Office learned a great deal from the early execution of its pilot programs and from listening with an open mind to the suggestions and recommendations received from partners, colleagues and leadership throughout the HSE. Based on this valuable feedback, the Commercialization Office created a detailed flow process (see Figure 3) and documented the roles and responsibilities for those involved with the program. This is shared in an open and free-way and provides a roadmap to potential product or service certification. The processes were developed with the mindset of “keeping it simple and making it easy” for all participants to understand their roles and responsibilities.

When DHS published approved CARDs and PAMs, the private sector was able to take advantage of this valuable information to develop potential solutions by entering into a partnership with DHS. These partnerships were formalized utilizing cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) that describe in detail the relationship, roles/ responsibilities and deliverables for each party. CRADAs allow for an open exchange of information from all parties to facilitate effective advancement of technology development and evaluation. Through the CRADA, the private sector partner was able to submit third party, recognized, independent operational test & evaluation (OT&E) for review by DHS and its subject matter experts.

As previously discussed, requirements articulation facilitates leveraging cooperative public-private partnerships because of the critical performance metrics gleaned from the stated requirements. The SECURE program utilized this vital evaluation criteria to incorporate a rigorous review process based on OT&E of potential solutions to ensure that the operational performance of a system is not only directly aligned to stated stakeholder requirements, but also that the system meets or exceeds the stated performance of the private sector vendor or supplier. This review process verifies and validates capability requirements in addition to an evaluation of the systems’ safety record, quality assurance criteria, performance limitations and other considerations to ensure that when a system is deployed in the field it is both effective and safe. SECURE Certification was granted to those products and/or services that have completed this review and are shown to meet or exceed the operational performance claimed by the private sector partner and are aligned to the needs/requirements contained in a posted CARD document.

This testing and validation of potential solutions is especially valuable for non-federal stakeholders who do not have the resources nor expertise necessary to conduct thorough solution evaluation activities. DHS then provided all of its stakeholders with the tools and information needed to make informed purchasing decisions on quality solutions that fill their exact requirements giving the needed assurance to the first responder and CIKR communities that a certified product or service works as specified and is aligned to a requirements document.

Products developed through this partnership (even those not eventually purchased by DHS) can be offered to other private sector entities, found for example in the airport security arena, school and university security segments, and security space for professional sports and concerts, many of whom support the defense of critical infrastructure and key resources nation-wide. There is then an increase in public safety and security, all while the private sector, public sector and taxpayer benefit from the partnership.

In an open and freely competitive way, multiple vendors were able to offer potential solutions to provide the required capabilities outlined in a given CARD. In exchange for this valuable information, the private sector offers deployable products and services (along with recognized third-party test and evaluation data) that meet these stated requirements in an open and free way that creates an ergonomic “clearinghouse of solutions” available to stakeholders. Today, many variations of the SECURE program were developed through the US Government and elsewhere.

Understanding the DHS Market

Many recognized through the SECURE program that the Federal government can engage and influence – in a positive way – the private sector by offering detailed requirements and conservative estimates of market potential. The reason that these partnerships are successful is simple and straightforward. Firms spend significant resources in trying to understand market needs and market potential through their business and market development efforts. By offering this open and transparent information, government saves the private sector both time and money while demonstrating its genuine desire to work cooperatively to develop technologies and products to meet DHS stakeholders’ needs in a cost-effective and efficient way that benefits the private and public sectors – but also, most importantly, to the American taxpayers’ benefit.

An analysis of potential DHS stakeholders provides greater detail into the many relevant market sub-segments and/or applications of potential users. See Figure 4. This market map provides a segmentation of DHS’s primary stakeholders to demonstrate these market potentials. It also shows how an agency like DHS is related to other government and non-government ancillary markets.

With more knowledge about the needs and requirements of their potential customers, the private sector is in a better position to consider how their current offerings align to needed capabilities. The private sector must consider how many potential users are in a given market to determine if investment of additional resources to develop the solution will provide the necessary returns. In many cases, the market for a commercialization-based public-private partnership is substantial, potentially composed of millions of funded users. In addition, many government agencies across the federal, state, and local government levels can share similar requirements for products and services (if the ability to modify and add or take away options is available). Furthermore, the products developed for the government can often be sold in civilian markets such as critical infrastructure and key resources owners and operators. Even if the government does not purchase a specific company’s product, in many cases it can still be useful and have value for non-governmental applications. Just as business experts discuss “technology platform” strategies and models, one can envision a detailed requirement document delineating core requirements with additional agency-driven “options” — analogous to the variety of options offered on automobiles. Just as consumer products are developed with a variety of options (at varying price points), a detailed requirements document could outline all the options required by agencies through a “requirements platform.”

The SECURE program covered the needs of all of the DHS stakeholders including the operating components (FEMA, TSA, CBP, Secret Service, ICE, USCIS and Coast Guard), but most especially first responders (local police and fire department, hospitals, rescue teams) and critical infrastructure/key resources (CIKR) owners and operators, representing a large market for potential private sector partners. It is the role of DHS to ensure that these stakeholders are provided with the mission-critical capabilities that they need in order to perform their jobs well. In terms of state and local governments, DHS has organizational elements within its agency to assist in both the development and widespread dissemination of requirements. In the case of the mobile water treatment challenge, DHS identified potential users in many different organizations across government and throughout the private sector. The amalgamation of government users and CIKR owners and operators responsible for providing clean drinking water to communities affected by natural disasters is quite large in this case. This creates the necessary potential available market that is attractive to private industry.

It is important to stress the relationship that DHS has with its non-federal stakeholders in the first responder and CIKR communities. DHS has direct authority over its operating components and can directly influence acquisition activities. This same relationship does not extend to its non-federal stakeholders who are responsible for managing their own budgets and purchasing decisions. Because the SECURE program was not a procurement activity, DHS was able to share valuable information about its non-federal stakeholders to the private sector and gain knowledge about potential solutions without the need for contracts or monetary exchanges. First responders and non-federal stakeholders had a unified voice to convey their needs or requirements and gain from the collective size as potential available markets.

A commercialization-based public-private partnership benefits the public sector because the private sector competes in an open and transparent way to garner the public sector’s purchase potential and business. By sharing information about the requirements or needs of an identified market openly, multiple companies may make products/services that meet requirements, while competitive market forces impact price points to achieve the lowest cost to the potential buyer. The end user benefits by being able to purchase the best product at the lowest price.

The taxpayer wins in a commercialization-based public-private partnership because their tax money is not spent on research and development that could be accomplished by the private sector. With government-provided needs and requirements, the private sector realizes significant reductions in R&D risks, another important consideration in generating a business case for investment. In a commercialization-based public-private partnership, the research and development of the product is not paid by government. It is the private-sector that invests its own money on research and development, and then sells the product to the government at the lowest price. This results in saving the taxpayer money as well and, in fact, expands the net realizable budgets of the public sector. Table 1 outlines these various benefits:

Innovative ideas flow freely in the private sector, most especially from small businesses. There is a demand for these innovative technologies as other private sector companies begin to position themselves to address these newly emerging commercial markets. Mergers and acquisitions continue to take place in the private sector as larger companies and investors seek to build their enterprises. Discovering the potential benefits of partnering with the public sector has demonstrated its attractiveness to investor communities like venture capitalists and angel investors. This investment has created more opportunities for those innovative ideas to grow and develop into fully deployable products. Sharing information like needs and requirements provides a defined target that allows those private sector partnerships to take hold. These strategic partnerships are becoming more common and it is now a regular event for these strategic partners to approach the public sector together to engage and demonstrate new technology offerings.

Establishing the Partnership

In the United States today, many public-private partnerships are facilitated through various technology transfer and cooperative research agreements. The most popular agreements are based on official cooperative research and development agreements, or CRADAs. These agreements are executed between federal government agencies and private sector participants, where both parties work on a mutually beneficial project. Each group applies the resource that they agreed to use, such as personnel, equipment, services, and/or facilities. Though the private sector participant may fund portions of the effort, the government agency cannot use federal funds (i.e., cash) to support the private sector directly. The partners are able to share information and leverage each other’s technical expertise, ideas and information in a protected environment.

The benefits of having a CRADA are: 1) the private sector participants are able to take advantage of the government agency’s analytical capabilities; 2) the government agency and the private sector participants can negotiate on intellectual property disposition, such as rights to patents, the protection of information, and exclusive or non-exclusive licensing of inventions or other intellectual properties developed that are made through the agreement; 3) the government agency and the private sector participants have the opportunity to develop work and business relationships.

Agency and private participants define a project that would benefit both sectors. If the needed resources are available to perform the discussed project, the representative (usually a program manager) of the public sector makes the final decision about whether they will pursue a CRADA opportunity. Funds are not transferred from the government agency to the private sector participant, so most regulations limiting federal procurement do not apply. As a result, the CRADA can be put into practice quickly and with little difficulty.

Commercialization of Technology Provides the Key…

Technology in and of itself is not of value—but commercialized technology meeting requirements of the CIKR community or enabling technology to protect CIKR is paramount to enabling the secure and safe operation of our economy…Below is a non-exhaustive list (see Table 2) of example technologies well-suited for protection of our valuable CIKR. In addition, emerging technologies are being fully commercialized that have the potential for mass use. For example:

Fiber Optic Sensors have applications in various sectors as Oil & Gas, power, utility, civil engineering, security, wind energy turbines and infrastructure development. The factors making fiber optic sensors attractive include its properties of being nonelectrical, explosion-proof, small size and weight and high accuracy. They are also immune to radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Ultra-High Sensitivity Sensors, low-level detection of illicit substances, including explosives, narcotics and CWAs, remains a long-standing goal of modern instrument platforms. For example, detection of drugs at ultra-low levels significantly below those currently detected by state-of-the-art instrument systems analyzing swipe samples could enable vapor detection, that would compete with a detection acuity on the order of sniffing dogs. Such systems would enable detection of vapors to identify illicit drugs in cargo containers and other concealed conveyances. Additionally, ultra-low-level detection of CWAs could also allow identification of hazardous compounds at levels well below those considered safe for the general population. This is a primary concern of the US Department of Homeland Security.

It should be noted hat the US Government has, and continues to develop technologies at early stages in hopes that it will be commercialized in the near future. For example, much of the orginial laser technology was developed by the US Army and commercialized by the private sector to creat a mult-billion dollor photonics industry. Most of us know that the US Government pioneered what is now the Internet. Once again, it is the partnership between the private sector and government that will lead to the timely execution or deployment of technology to meet CIKR’s needs.

For example, I am affiliated with a firm that plans to commercialize technology developed by the US Government that has the potential to detect trace amounts of explosives, illegal narcotics and chemical gases with high accuracy at minut levels—providing a “holy grail” solution to a vexing problem plaguing both government and the private sector. There are patented technologies being developed to provide intrusion detection without the need for physical barriers, making solutions both efficient and cost effective. Again—the point is—the rapid commercializtion of technology to meet know requirements is the key to success—for both the CIKR community and the private sector (who—by the way owns the majority of the CIKR in the US!)

Transformational Change Beyond DHS

Because of its obvious benefits, it is reasonable to examine the possibility of extending the concepts developed at DHS to other federal, state, local and tribal agencies. Logic dictates that in cases where operational requirements can be developed across agencies, the size of a given potential available market would increase. It is also certainly conceivable that various agencies across government share similar requirements for products and services. Further expanding requirements generation and collecting information on market potential across all of government can have transformative effects on the way government conducts business. The incorporation of Commercialization adds a “valuable tool to an agency’s toolbox” in providing increased speed-of-execution in deploying technologies/products/services to solve problems, as well as providing an increase in the net realizable budget of an agency. In fact, the expansion of public-private partnerships like SECURE across all of government are being recommended to both the President of the United States and Congress due to their many benefits.

Communities of Practitioners and Dual-Use Technologies

The prevalence of national associations for various stakeholder communities drives the creation of a significant amount of information relative to the challenges, needs and requirements of their representative membership. Government can play a vital role in communication with these associations to gather this critical information. Providing opportunities to engage larger audiences and creating a nation-wide understanding of the problems has increased the awareness and identification of similar requirements in a number of user communities. The more cross-cutting a set of requirements becomes, the more opportunities exist to save taxpayers’ resources. How could this be accomplished in a practical way? The answer is simple: It has already begun… DHS is planning to utilize deployable technology to create a Community of Practitioners (CoP) in order to gather and communicate requirements across such a large-scale community of users.

The Department of Defense, for example, has invested in these kinds of technologies. Technology will enable users to reach not only the millions of first responders but also other potentially authorized stakeholders and members of the HSE (other federal agencies, private sector, venture community, etc.). Advanced technologies like the semantic web 3.0 will aid in the communal and open development of detailed operational requirements, potential available market sizing/applications, etc. There are plans to initiate a pilot program to harness these technologies to engage various user communities to enable broad-based development of widely accepted operational requirements. As cooperative partnerships increase between the public and private sector, sharing information becomes the most important tool to improve the effectiveness of the relationship.

CoPs can be developed at a number of levels to gather information from all government stakeholders at the federal, state, local and tribal levels. In addition, CoPs will enhance connections between personnel in a number of mission-spaces who may find similarities in capability gaps or share information on best-practices and possible standards that can facilitate coordinated responses to incidents involving users from a number of jurisdictions.

Uncovering common requirements across stakeholder communities highlights the connections between ancillary markets and the possibility for a given technology to work in varied applications. Dual-use technologies provide useful capabilities to a larger market of potential users. It follows that addressing additional markets increases the potential benefits to solution providers who can distribute their company’s capabilities to a wider audience, increasing sales volumes and driving prices down for consumers as economies of scale are improved.

Commercialization and partnerships are tools that have genuine value well beyond DHS. In fact, these efforts can offer more and more opportunities to increase the speed-of-execution of government programs and increase the net realizable budget of the government — all at the benefit of taxpayers the more the models are used both across and within government.

Summary

The government has the opportunity to be proactive in addressing its many needs through creating an environment conducive to partnerships with the private sector. Governments have many resources at their disposal to begin learning about how commercialization-based public-private partnerships can be formed. The mobile potable water treatment challenge described is just one example of the federal government “thinking outside the box” to address its challenges. SECURE program partnership models can be used for any number of challenges including information technology, physical security, communications, etc. The public sector will continue to identify areas in which partnerships can provide the best situation to solve a problem efficiently, effectively — all with a speed-of-execution necessary to provide critical protections to the American people and their way of life.

Acknowledgements

This article would not have been possible without the steadfast assistance of my former colleagues at the US Department of Homeland Security and White House. Specifically, I extend my sincere appreciation to Mark Protacio, Stephen Hancock, Pete Ladowicz, Jenny Walters, Caroline Greenwood, Ryan Policay, Peter Morgan, Robert Hooks, and Richard Kikla for their contributions to the development of the powerful public-private partnership and commercialization best practices delineated here. I also want to thank my colleagues at Bravatek Solutions, Inc. and DarkPulse, Inc. for showing me–in a real-world way—how to be a “best in class” partner in the security business. Also, many thanks to Chuck Brooks for providing useful information about emerging technologies applicable to CIKR.

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Chuck Brooks: Preparation, Commitment Key for Govt-Industry Cyber Partnerships

Link: Xerox's Chuck Brooks: Preparation, Commitment Key for Govt-Industry Cyber Partnerships - ExecutiveBiz

by Mary-Louise Hoffman

new level of public-private collaboration is needed to implement data sharing, incident response and detection strategies to prevent future cyber attacks, Xerox executive Chuck Brooks writes in a Federal Times opinion piece published Tuesday.

Brooks, vice president and client executive for the Department of Homeland Security at Xerox, says massive hacking incidents in 2014 can serve as a wake-up call for the government and industry to increase their partnership against cyber crime this year and onward.

“To mitigate data breaches in 2015, preparation and commitment from both government and industry leadership is critical,” he stated.

He has also predicted the National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014 would have major implications for DHS’ efforts to exchange threat intelligence with companies.

According to Brooks, McAfee forecasts ransomware, software exploit, non-Windows malware and point-of-sale attacks to be among the cybersecurity issues that organizations will face in 2015.

He believes corporations should also seek government’s assistance to prioritize risk management models and prepare resiliency plans and that organizations should bring mobile encryption and biometrics into the threat matrix equation.

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Richard Rushing

CISO at Motorola Mobility

Biggest issues with PPP's, is they are always focus on a country. I am all for PPP's but as most companies have some level of a global footprint. This means we have to join multiple groups, and none of the groups trust other groups. This needs to change, break out of the silo's focus on the big problems. It works just by looking at NIST CSF, it is adopted around the world, not just in the US. This has to occur at the public level not the private level.

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Bringing People Together to Solve Unique Challenges/Connecting Military Experienced People with Civilian Workforce Training and Opportunities; Author Moon Tide, A Character Novel Set in Madison CT, Living in a Hubzone

Chuck Brooks Did I miss where you mentioned InfraGard?

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This issue is focused on the importance of public private partnerships (PPP) and cybersecurity. PPPS have become a hot topic in cybersecurity and with government. It is a mission now being prioritized by CISA DHS.

Public Private Partnerships And The Cybersecurity Challenge Of Protecting Critical Infrastructure by Chuck Brooks

Follow Chuck on LinkedIn. Check out Chuck’s website.

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Public and Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Model for Cybersecurity by Chuck Brooks

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Public, Private Sector Partnerships Addressing COVID-19 Are A Cybersecurity Model

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Fast Tracking Our Tech Future With Government

Fast Tracking Our Tech Future With Government

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Cyber Hygiene and Government–Industry Cooperation for Better Cybersecurity

Collaboration is Key

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PERSPECTIVE: Honor Native Americans’ Security Contributions with More Cyber Training

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What You Can Learn from Public/Private Partnerships

3 lessons from what powerful partnerships can create.

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Embracing Global Public/Private Cybersecurity Alliances

Information Sharing:

Cooperative Research, Development and Rapid Deployment:

Enhanced Cybersecurity Alliances:

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Creating resilience with public/private partnerships—and planning by Chuck Brooks

The Importance of Contingency Planning

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Department of Homeland Security Now Leverages Public-Private Partnerships

Understanding the DHS Market

Establishing the Partnership

Commercialization of Technology Provides the Key…

Transformational Change Beyond DHS

Communities of Practitioners and Dual-Use Technologies

Summary

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Chuck Brooks: Preparation, Commitment Key for Govt-Industry Cyber Partnerships

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