Security News > 2011 > March > Computer hackers a top concern for Homeland Security

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-homeland-security-20110302,0,2881352.story By Julie Mianecki Washington Bureau Los Angeles Times March 1, 2011 Cyber security is a potential "nightmare" for the Department of Homeland Security in the years ahead, as are concerns about homegrown terrorists and intelligence sharing, officials said Tuesday at a seminar marking the department's eighth anniversary. "The nightmare that the DHS has," said Stewart Baker, a former head of policy at the department, "is that a very sophisticated hacker, perhaps working for Hezbollah, manages to infiltrate our electric grid and to bring down power to a portion of the United States, not for an hour or two, but for days or weeks. This would create a major humanitarian crisis." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the rapid pace of change is the biggest issue with technology. "The problem with cyber is almost by the time you're talking about something, they're on to the next thing," Napolitano said. "It is really a fast-moving field that, quite frankly, probably none of us are as good at understanding as somebody who's 20 years old, so this is an area where we're really trying to hire people. And if there are students in the audience that have any cyber interest, I would ask them to see me after." [...] ___________________________________________________________ Tegatai Managed Colocation: Four Provider Blended Tier-1 Bandwidth, Fortinet Universal Threat Management, Natural Disaster Avoidance, Always-On Power Delivery Network, Cisco Switches, SAS 70 Type II Datacenter. Find peace of mind, Defend your Critical Infrastructure. http://www.tegataiphoenix.com/

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-homeland-security-20110302,0,2881352.story