According to a report by the Defense Science Board, the President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a cybersecurity infrastructure that is ill-prepared for advanced cyberattacks which will be of particular challenge for the new leaders. From the report: “There is increasing concern throughout the Department of Defense (DOD) about advanced cyber threats. Many studies are underway; budgets are being developed, evaluated, and amended; and organizations are being restructured. But there has been very little actual progress to date in terms of implementing cyber security improvements against advance threats.”

Reporting today on eWeek, Roy Mark writes: “The Bush administration has been widely criticized by security experts as de-emphasizing cyber-security and hamstringing the authority of officials in charge of government-wide cyber-security” said Roy Mark in a report eWeek.”

The National Cyber Security Initiative began in January of this year and is expected to cost as much as $30 billion over the next seven years. “We believe the new administration should place the highest priority on both supporting and extending this very significant effort,” the report point out.

In the newly launched website for the office of the president-elect, Change.gov, the following items are currently listed as part of the administration’s information networks defense plan:

• Strengthen Federal Leadership on Cyber Security;
• Initiate a Safe Computing R&D Effort and Harden our Nation’s Cyber Infrastructure;
• Protect the IT Infrastructure That Keeps America’s Economy Safe;
• Prevent Corporate Cyber-Espionage;
• Develop a Cyber Crime Strategy to Minimize the Opportunities for Criminal Profit;
• Mandate Standards for Securing Personal Data and Require Companies to Disclose Personal Information Data Breaches