"The state CIOs have made addressing deficiencies in public-sector cybersecurity the number one item on NASCIO's federal agenda," said Tom Jarrett, NASCIO's president and CIO of the state of Delaware. "We believe that the creation of a higher-profile position for cybersecurity within DHS is an important symbolic statement to the nation as a whole. Now, we need to begin work in each of the critical sectors, including ours."
NASCIO has long seen the natural linkage between homeland security and the state and local CIOs, who oversee information and communications technologies that support the key public service. Section 7(c) of Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-7 declares that: "It is the policy of the United States to enhance the protection of our Nation's critical infrastructure and key resources against terrorist acts that could...undermine State and local government capacities to maintain order and to deliver minimum essential public services." Section 15 designates "emergency services" -- most of which are delivered by state and local authorities -- as being among the nation's "critical infrastructure sectors."
"Given how many state CIOs have expressed great concern over DHS's lack of coordination with states and locals on cybersecurity efforts, our foremost request to the new assistant secretary will be for him or her to help us address the fact that cybersecurity is not included in DHS's state and local planning and preparedness process, which is the process states use to allocate federal homeland security grants funds," said Denise Moore, chair of NASCIO's Information Security Committee and CIO of the state of Kansas. "Our experience has been that DHS's cybersecurity division has had little or no interaction with DHS's office for domestic preparedness, which has been focused entirely on the non-cyber threat categories."
"Now is the time for every sector to join with Secretary Chertoff and redouble our efforts to secure the nation's critical infrastructures," said Doug Robinson, NASCIO's executive director. "We've got to take his outline for change and help him fill in the details. NASCIO will continue to strive for better inclusion of state and local sector cybersecurity in DHS's efforts. State and local CIOs have a lot of homeland security mission-critical systems that have not been adequately considered by DHS to this point."
