In the wake of President Barack Obama's cybersecurity executive order, accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP has provided the below timeline for the adoption of the plan's various elements.
The order addresses cyber risks to industries seen as critical to U.S. infrastructure. “The cyber threat to critical infrastructure continues to grow and represents one of the most serious national security challenges we must confront,” says the order. “The national and economic security of the United States depends on the reliable functioning of the Nation's critical infrastructure in the face of such threats.”
It calls for an inter-agency process to facilitate coordination and guidance of policies designed to “increase the volume, timeliness, and quality of cyber-threat information shared with U.S. private-sector entities so that these entities may better protect and defend themselves against cyber threats.”
Specifically, the order says that, within 120 days, the attorney general, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the director of National Intelligence must each issue instructions to produce “unclassified reports of cyber threats to the U.S. homeland that identify a specific targeted entity.”
It also calls for a voluntary information-sharing program between the government and eligible “critical-infrastructure companies or commercial-service providers that offer security services to critical infrastructure.”
In its summary, Baker Tilly says, “Participation in the program is voluntary, but the entity must be identified as an eligible candidate to participate.”
The firm adds, “Eligibility will be determined with the help of sector-specific and other relevant agencies to provide the [Secretary of Homeland Security] with the information needed to identify agencies that maintain or offer commercial-security services to critical infrastructure.
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