New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/16/2014 -- Global Government Forum obtained an exclusive interview with one of the senior figures dealing with cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security. To Brigadier General Greg Touhill, the major cybersecurity threat is to the critical infrastructure, services like power, water and transport. Within that, the weak point lies in the industrial control systems.

Since that critical infrastructure is scattered around the globe and since this is a worldwide issue, he sees this as a joint venture between governments and private utilities:

‘We are trying to address all threats so that we can secure our critical infrastructure to maintain public safety. The critical infrastructure is largely in the hand of the private owners and operators and only together, in partnership, can we best defend our nation.’

To this end, after an Executive Order from President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security engaged with all stakeholders, from the public to utility companies, to develop a framework. Working with the NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology – they produced a Framework Core which has five concurrent and continuous functions: Identify. Protect. Detect. Respond. Recover.

Remarkably, all the research, material, guidelines and practices can be downloaded by interested parties. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework Reference Tool can be downloaded.

Brig Gen Touhill is fundamentally optimistic about the future. He is cautious about the cloud – although rather more optimistic than Professor Jill Slay of the ACCS in Australia [LINK NOT LIVE YET] – but overall he feels we can manage the risks ahead if we take the threat seriously enough. As he says:

‘We have to remain on our toes. We need to continue to include cybersecurity in the conversation and take cybersecurity out of the server room and make it a conversation piece on every agenda and every boardroom.’

Read the full interview with Brigadier General Touhill

About Global Government Forum
Global Government Forum is an impartial source of government news, information and best practice from around the world. Its audience is government leaders and professionals from the global community who address the real issues of today and shape the public services of the future.

Media Contact:
Editorial enquiries: editorial@globalgovernmentforum.com
Telephone: +44 20 7859 4309
Kevin Sorkin