Back in January, a draft report from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was released to President Trump in order to address his May 11, 2017 Executive Order, which called for strengthening “Cybersecurity of federal Networks and Critical infrastructure”.

The Departments approached this issue by “hosting a workshop, publishing a request for comment, and initiating an inquiry through the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC)—aimed at gathering a broad range of input from experts and stakeholders, including private industry, academia, and civil society” which resulted in the draft report entitled: “Enhancing the Resilience of the Internet and Communications Ecosystem Against Botnets and other Automated, Distributed Threats.”  The comment period for this report has come and gone, with little newsworthy alarms. But that is not to say we have heard the last of this “Report”.

The Report outlines six “Principal Themes” which are: 1) Automated, distributed attacks are a global problem, 2) Effective tools exist, but are not widely used, 3) Products should be secured during all stages of the lifecycle, 4) Education and awareness is needed, 5) Market incentives are misaligned, and 6) Automated, distributed attacks are an ecosystem-wide challenge. The final Report is due to the President (which will incorporate comments and feedback) on May 11, 2018.

As the Report tries to determine the best ways to combat the ever growing cybersecurity threats and how to protect information, the hope is that the May 11 final report will provide some useful approaches and next steps in combating this global threat. Stay tuned….  See the full draft report.

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