Tech firms seek separate cybersecurity agency

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Lawmakers should include a cybersecurity agency within the plans for a new Homeland Security Department, a trade association said last week.

In a letter to Virginia Republican Tom Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) touted the need for a special agency focused on cyberterrorism.

"The unique nature of the cybersecurity challenge thus requires that a separate coordinating body exist within the Department of Homeland Security," BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman wrote.

Davis' subcommittee is one of several panels reviewing the Bush administration's request for the new department.

BSA also offered comments on competing homeland security proposals. And Holleyman noted that guidelines for federal cybersecurity and provisions to promote information sharing between the private sector and public agencies should be included in such legislation.

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