Cybersecurity centre opens in US
2009-11-06
There are plenty of reasons for companies to be concerned about a data breach or IT intrusion and some are reacting while others may not be. Over in the US, a $9 million (£5.41 million) operations centre has just been opened with the intention of fighting cybercrime.
Its official name is the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Centre (NICCIC) and it will act as an information hub for US cybersecurity threats.
After opening the NICCIC, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Janet Napolitano said: "Securing America's cyber infrastructure requires a coordinated and flexible system to detect threats and communicate protective measures to our federal, state, local, and private sector partners and the public.
"Consolidating our cyber and communications operations centres within the NCCIC will enhance our ability to effectively mitigate risks and respond to threats."'
President Obama and Secretary Napolitano are looking to strengthen data sharing and incident response so that the nation's cyber networks and infrastructure are kept secure. The new facility forms part of this aim.
The centre brings together the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team and the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications. It will also seek to integrate the efforts of the National Cybersecurity Center, which runs operations among the six biggest federal cyber centres.
Secretary Napolitano recently visited UK shores to talk about partnerships to secure cyber networks and infrastructure, among other issues. She said that working together is vital when dealing with "borderless threats" to the world's shared security.
This development comes after Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that companies and consumers need to be considerably more watchful about hiding their sensitive data from would-be hackers.
It revealed that one computer program can be used to eavesdrop on the actions of another, noting that when two programs are running simultaneously, they sometimes end up sharing the same cache.
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