White House Issues Cybersecurity Order To Deter Classified Leaks

The Obama administration issued an executive order Friday aimed at preventing the leak of classified data from government computer networks.

But while some experts said the directive calls for important cybersecurity improvements, others said the mandate was long overdue and the government needed to do more to prevent another disclosure of sensitive information like the classified documents released to the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

"This is not transformative," said Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security. "We're not going to get security on our networks if we wait for disaster and then fix the things that caused the disaster."

The order, which concludes a seven-month review of how the government protects classified data, establishes a task force led by the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to deter "insider threats," or the disclosure of government secrets by its own employees. It also creates a special committee that reports to the president on the progress being made to protect classified information and requires officials from each agency to oversee the protection of sensitive data.

The White House directive was issued in response to the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents last year by WikiLeaks. In May 2010, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was arrested on suspicion of leaking the documents, which included more than 250,000 confidential State Department cables, video of a deadly U.S. helicopter attack and logs pertaining to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In April, he was transferred to a medium-security prison unit at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he is awaiting trial.

After the Wikileaks disclosure, national security staff created a committee to recommend policies for reducing the risk of another breach of classified information, the White House said. Since then, the government has made "significant progress" in securing government computer systems, such as limiting the number of people allowed to use removable media like flash drives and limiting access to classified networks, the White House said.

The goal of the effort was, "to ensure that we provide adequate protections to our classified information while at the same time sharing the information with all who reasonably need it to do their jobs," the White House said in a statement.

The order comes just days after a government audit found that lax cybersecurity practices at federal agencies continue to place sensitive government information at risk. According to the report by the Government Accountability Office, "hundreds" of cybersecurity recommendations have not been implemented by the government.

Baker said the order was, "a bunch of small things that frankly should have been done years ago." The government needed to take further security measures by creating a system to identify and stop network threats in real time, not after the fact, he said.

Other experts, however, said the executive order brings necessary accountability by making agency directors responsible for cybersecurity.

"That’s a tremendous shift to put the onus on leaders who have always said, 'That's an IT problem,'" said Tom Kellermann, chief technology officer at AirPatrol Corp.

Mischel Kwon is former director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which is tasked with analyzing and preventing cyber attacks against government networks.

"I look at this as good guidance and good practice," Kwon said.

Kellermann said the order would help prevent not just government employees from leaking classified data, but also foreign spies from stealing information remotely, which he said is more responsible for the loss of classified intelligence. In March, foreign hackers infiltrated the network of a defense contractor, stealing 24,000 military files in one of the most devastating data breaches suffered by the Pentagon to date.

Kellermann said the directive may not prevent another Wikileaks disclosure, but it closes several loopholes that left classified government data vulnerable to theft.

"It’s a significant step forward to stop the bleeding," Kellermann said.

Comments

[Mollyj]

02:32 PM on 10/24/2011

White House Issues Cybersecurity Order To Deter Classified Leaks;

Cyber war is the most dangerous one! They could hack our Nuclear Trigger!

[Errant]

02:31 PM on 10/09/2011

All this anti government stuff amuses me. Don't get me wrong, there should be accountability for actual wrongdoing but sometimes I think people look in the wrong places for the right reasons. And the wrong reasons too.

The thing we often forget that the people in power? We do elect them. And the people in power were once people like you and I. and that at one point or another they had good intentions; not all but some do or did.

Power corrupts, anarchy destroys. In other words it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. All we can do is be careful and cautious and logical and reasonable to minimize or mitigate and perhaps even for a short time eliminate the worse elements.

[hopingheart]

12:54 PM on 10/09/2011

No one yet knows the whole story but it's been reported that Bradley Manning made repeated attempts to alert his superiors to information he felt was illegal and jeopardizing our nation. When no one would pay attention, the information became available to Wikileaks.

If that is true, who is treasonous?

I support both our government strengthening cybersecurity *and* becoming more transparent and true to its proclaimed principles.

[ntmessage]

10:55 AM on 10/09/2011

Given that Treason is a crime punishable by death, I would say those that violated their oath to the country are getting off easy.

[Sylvain Pimpare]

04:08 AM on 10/09/2011

So the US will now cover up better their War Crimes?

[John Denton]

02:00 AM on 10/09/2011

See, mods, the major strain on national security ops is the lengths they go to preserve the 9/11 Big Lie. A trained cadre of social engineers and numb subordinates is ready to kick the country in to martial law any old time. The FEMA camps are ready to get into business. The streets are filling up with malcontents.

What do you think?

[rodnox]

09:53 PM on 10/08/2011

no matter what they try to stop we have people in our society who will bring the evil doings of govt to light----eventually we will stop govts from their moral-less agendas

[lpcrsotp]

09:43 PM on 10/08/2011

Let me rephrase my last comment. As long as there are people there will be leaks.

[lpcrsotp]

09:40 PM on 10/08/2011

As long as there are hackers, there will be leaks.

[Grada3784]

09:10 PM on 10/08/2011

And King Canute ordered the tide not to come in. The result will be the same.

[snoopyw900]

09:02 PM on 10/08/2011

When I read the headline about changing security my first thought was....Great maybe Obama won't be able to get back in the white house. Damn just wishful thinking I guess

[garyms4]

09:37 PM on 10/08/2011

If he couldn't have gotten back in the White House, he'd just went on vacation again. No problem. LOL

[Mark Wesly Mason]

08:49 PM on 10/08/2011

Don't blame Obama on this one, blame that guy at wiki leaks for the crack down. All the president is doing is sighning for the step up un sucrety. Should have never come to this, but better late then never

[ezhai]

08:20 PM on 10/08/2011

He really doesn't have a clue - does he!

[nfischet]

07:26 PM on 10/08/2011

where is all that promised "transparency" we,the citizens were promised??

[twninja]

08:03 PM on 10/08/2011

guess we have to wait till 2012 for that to be brought up again.

[d3325ok]

08:16 PM on 10/08/2011

it was gone and buried just as soon as Obama siged his executive order to seal his records.i also saw somewhere that he has signed another order to keep all his presidency records sealed after he leaves office.

[1tenn]

06:30 PM on 10/08/2011

executive priviledge forgive a dead border patrol agent? what we have is blatant disregard towards the law of the land and the public in general.