ISE set to play larger role in cybersecurity info sharing, says Paul

The Information Sharing Environment program will play an increased role in federal efforts to coordinate cybersecurity with state and local governments, said Kshemendra Paul, ISE program manager, after speaking Oct. 10 at an AFCEA-Bethesda panel.

ISE officials have pushed for expansion of their program beyond counterterrorism information sharing, and cybersecurity is an area "where we're getting increasingly involved," Paul said. Other areas of potential expansion include combating transnational crime and human trafficking, he added.

"As a nation, we've spent a lot of money, invested a lot of energy in developing a counterterrorism homeland security sharing infrastructure," he said. "There's a role in leveraging that in the cybersecurity challenge," he said, pointing to a "pressing need to ensure that government information security offices and strategic operations centers share data regarding malicious activities against federal systems" identified (.pdf) by the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.

ISE interoperability standards--the core of which is the National Information Exchange Model--can support incident reporting and response, Paul said.

NIEM has cyber community of interest, but ISE expansion hinges on more than metadata specification development.

"I would say the heaviest lift is working through the policy issues," Paul said.

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