13 Aug: Cyberscoop: Ex-DHS officials urge department to double down on its cybersecurity work
by Sean Lyngaas
The Department of Homeland Security has been the face of some of the Trump administration’s most fiercely criticized policies, from aggressively rounding up migrants to detaining protesters.
A new bipartisan report from former DHS officials suggests the department cut ties with some of the “most partisan” aspects of its work, and redouble its efforts to protect the country from cyberthreats and infectious diseases.
“For the defense of American democracy to succeed, the secretary of homeland security and DHS generally will need to be, to the greatest extent possible, ‘above politics,’” states the report (LINK), which the Atlantic Council released Thursday.
The report comes as some private-sector analysts wonder whether the DHS crackdown on protesters in Portland will hinder collaboration between DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the white-hat hacking community. Employees at CISA — which works on election security, among other issues — have been keen to differentiate their work from the more incendiary parts of DHS.
Neil Jenkins, a former DHS official in the Obama administration, said CISA had done “an admirable job of staying apolitical in the current environment.” But he worried about the effect that DHS’s other agencies could have on the public’s perception of CISA...
More money never hurts
Whether under another term of President Donald Trump or a new Joe Biden administration, the Atlantic Council report urges CISA to ask Congress for significantly more money and resources to carry out its mission.
DHS, which was cobbled together from 22 different agencies in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, commanded a budget of more than $73 billion in fiscal 2020 and a workforce of 240,000. CISA accounted for about $2 billion of that money, and at least 2,100 of those people, according to budget documents(LINK).
But Durkovich and Warrick said more resources are needed. They called on lawmakers to establish a “cyber resilience fund” — akin to one used for natural disasters — that CISA could use to help fortify key sectors against persistent hacking...
Durkovich and Warrick also suggested CISA make an “emergency supplemental request” to Congress in the first half of 2021 so it can beef up protections for the November 2022 elections...
https://www.cyberscoop.com/dhs-future-atlantic-council-recommendations/
1 Apr: Fedscoop: Former DHS secretaries to propose major reforms streamlining resources for cybersecurity, coronavirus threats
by Dave Nyczepir
hen President Trump ordered incoming flights from Europe to be screened for COVID-19 starting March 14, DHS couldn’t access the doctors, supplies or facilities needed to do that efficiently, Tom Warrick, the department’s first deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy, told FedScoop.
The result was seven-hour delays at major airports, even though DHS “knows precisely how many people are coming into the country each day through advanced passenger information data technology,” Warrick said.
Now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council‘s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Warrick will co-lead six study groups aimed, in part, at aligning resources with federal policies DHS must enforce...
“A part of this is the fractured nature of the way congressional oversight works,” Warrick said. “There are more than 90 committees and subcommittees in Congress that have some role and responsibility for overseeing parts of DHS.”
At least 11 major think tanks have recommended streamlining the process, but none of them boasted a senior advisory board that includes former Homeland Security secretaries...Michael Chertoff, Jeh Johnson and Janet Napolitano like the Future of DHS Project...READ ON
https://www.fedscoop.com/dhs-reforms-emerging-threats/
Speaking of the Atlantic Council:
When Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards were arrested after attacking a crowd of protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in May 2017, Erdogan and his crew were heading inside for a private, off-the-record meeting with Atlantic Council fellows and board members. That event is just one example of the close relationship between the Washington, D.C., think tank and the...