US Cybersecurity Policy Advisers Named

When the next president of the United States sits down in the Oval Office for the first time in January of 2009, he or she will be greeted with the traditional, hand-written welcome letter from the previous president in the desk drawer. There will also be the first orders of business to attend to -- including a new list of recommendations for a national cybersecurity strategy.

A Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th President will be named today that will pick up where President Bush's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which was released four years ago, left off -- spelling out specific recommendations for how the next president should address federal security polices and infrastructure, according to a published report.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is behind the private-industry commission, which will include Mary Ann Davidson of Oracle; Ed Felten of Princeton University; Shannon Kellogg of EMC; Paul Kurtz, previous head of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance; Marcus Sachs of The SANS Institute; and Michael Vatis, former head of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. It will also include two representatives from the federal side, a National Security Agency and a House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee official, who will serve in ex-officio roles for the committee.

Bush's national cybersecurity strategy policy, which has been criticized for its lack of detail, never really took off, save for a few recommendations such as better information sharing between the private and public sector.

The new commission meets next month, and is expected to wrap up its recommendations by the end of 2008.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading