Homeland Security science division will also tackle cybersecurity

The Homeland Security Department's science and technology directorate will play an important supporting role in efforts to secure the nation's computer infrastructure from attack, top officials with the directorate or broader department said on Monday.

In interviews with reporters from National Journal's Technology Daily, the senior officials emphasized that while their focus primarily will be developing technologies to counter threats posed by weapons of mass destruction, cyber security is a necessary component of their mission to support the technology needs of the operational directorates. They said computer-security experts will join the organization soon to guide research and development.

The departmental officials included: Penrose Albright, assistant secretary for science and technology; David Bolka, director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA); John Kubricky, director of systems engineering; Maureen McCarthy, director of research and development; and Charles McQueary, undersecretary for science and technology.

In collaboration with the department's information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate, the science and technology directorate plans to hire a program manager to lead a "virtual" cyber-security center of experts nationwide. Funding for the center will be provided in fiscal 2004, with a formal announcement about the manager "very close," the officials said.

The science and technology directorate already has hired Simon Szykman as cyber-security R&D director. On Thursday, Doug Maughan, a former employee at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that served as the model for HSARPA, said he hopes to join the department to head the cyber-security research agenda. Maughan said he would work in the science and technology directorate for HSARPA.

Currently a contractor for Homeland Security who identifies research programs for critical infrastructure and organizes the cyber-security research agenda, he said the directorate is waiting for departmental divisions such as the Coast Guard, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration to define their cyber-security requirements.

McQueary said the nationwide experts will work with the information analysis and infrastructure protection directorate "because that is our job. It's really a collection of experts from around the country that will help us decide what the overall portfolio for cyber security needs to be."

The National Science Foundation and National Institute for Standards and Technology also fund cyber-security research in coordination with the department, McQueary added.

McQueary said Homeland Security should consider incentives to entice the private sector into sharing detailed network-security practices. "Somehow we've got to sort through this and decide how do you get some useful information out of ... private industry since 85 percent of all the infrastructure is in private industry. We've got to draw upon that."

McCarthy, the directorate's research director, said important cyber-security technologies such as the development of "cyber forensics," the tools needed to track perpetrators of cyber attacks, fall within government's purview. But the directorate mostly will look to outsiders for innovation.

"I will not be doing a lot in the cyber world," she said. "Many cyber-security tools and technologies reside in the private sector, and much of the cyber-security portfolio's work will be in engaging academia and industry."