If you are an enterprise CTO I’m hoping you already have the site of the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) bookmarked.  It it has been a while since you have seen their site please check it out at http://www.us-cert.gov They provide important resources for any enterprise technologist, not just security professionals.

Organizationally they have a team of strong cyber players that have been honing their craft for years.  The US CERT serves a significant mission– they are there to strengthen the defense of the Federal government’s networks, especially those in the civil executive branch (the “.gov” of the Internet).  In executing that mission they help many others and are a critically important part of our nation’s defensive fabric.   The US CERT is run by the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Today the US CERT opened its new operations center.  Their facility is called the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).  It is a “Unified Operations Center” designed to enable the co-location of other key components of the NCSD and DHS, including the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications (NCC), the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), and the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).  This new operations center also hosts liaison officers from many other related watch centers which will make it a key information clearing house and a critically important capability for the nation.

I was allowed into the combined watch floor today and was excited to see the tremendous visualizations analysts and watchstanders will be able to leverage as they seek enhanced situational awareness.   Even though all the organizations in this room have different “chains of command” they all share common needs for fast, accurate information and their ability to dialog over visualizations will enhance their ability to jointly figure out what is going on.

On a personal note:  I am very optimistic about this new unified operations center and its ability to make a positive impact– and– although I have seen and believe in the technology they are using, the real reason I’m so positive is the quality of leaders involved.  I’m upbeat because of the folks I know who are driving the right actions.   They include Phil Reitinger , a savvy professional and executive with understanding of the law and technology and mission, RADM Mike Brown, one of of our nation’s greatest military leaders and a key driver of our nation’s cyber posture for over a decade, and a past associate from DIA who had been responsible for ensuring the DoD’s JWICS network survived and thrived and continually enhanced support to the DoD mission.   These folks have many hard tasks ahead and their work is by no means complete but they are some of the best the nation has and deserve our collective support.

Related posts:

1. Rod Beckstrom and the National Cyber Security Center at DHS
2. New Command to Focus on Cybersecurity for DoD and IC
3. Enhancing US Cybersecurity
4. Cyberpower and National Security
5. CMU: An impressive resource

Tags: Cyberspace, Department of Defense, DHS, federal government, Phil Reitinger, Tech/Internet

This entry was posted on October 30, 2009 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Cyber Security, Gov2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.