Security News > 2024 > January > Future of America's Cyber Safety Review Board hangs in balance amid calls for rethink

As the US mulls legislation that would see the Cyber Safety Review Board become a permanent fixture in the government's cyber defense armory, experts are calling for substantial changes in the way it's organized.

All three senior industry figures in attendance agreed that a greater degree of independence was required to ensure the reports produced by the board were as richly detailed as possible, answering the questions that those in the private sector typically haven't in the past.

The sentiment was shared by Trey Herr, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, who also agreed that the proposed independence of the CSRB should be seen as a key strength and an argument in favor of introducing the board on a permanent basis.

John Miller, senior veep of policy, trust, data, and technology and general counsel at the Information Technology Industry Council, said private sector board members should be independent and the election process should also be transparent.

"Some ITI members have noted the value and imperative of industry involvement in the board's activities, pointing out that the deep visibility of private sector cybersecurity firms into the global cyber threat landscape uniquely situates representatives from those firms to provide ecosystem-wide insights of enormous value to the board's deliberations," he said.

"I've been the one who's been being told shut up by a lawyer before in a moment where I, as a technologist and as an incident responder, was trying to just frantically solve a problem, keep people safe, stop data from leaking. And I think that the big challenge we have with a lack of subpoena power on the current board is that the real answers are often found about three layers deeper than the information that, as far as I am aware right now, is being provided to the board."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/18/cyber_safety_review_board_rethink/