DHS drafts a plan to respond to a cyberattack

A new plan is on the drawing board at the Department of Homeland Security to lay out how government and businesses should respond to a widespread cyberattack. DHS is collecting comments from the public and private sectors for integration into the plans that will be tested in a large-scale cybersecurity drill in September 2010.

Although it seems like it is taking a very long time to develop, the plan includes more than 150 participants from federal, state and local governments, as well as industries and organizations that run the nation's critical infrastructure.

Much like a plan that responds to a flood or an earthquake, this one will first involve a tabletop exercise to see how it would work, according to Michael Brown, deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS.

"There are multiple authorities or lack of authorities associated with all partners in the public and private sectors," Brown said. "This lays out how people are to respond when we hit certain thresholds" during a cyber incident.

The new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, which opened Oct. 30, will play a key role in cyber response as a 24-hour, coordinated watch and warning center.

The real question is, what happens if there is a major cybersecurity attack before this plan is tried and tested in nine months? Does the United States remain vulnerable, or are there contingency plans already in place?

For more on the draft plan:
- see this nextgov.com article

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