In cyberwar, who’s in charge?

Source: Tim Greene, Business Week.

When the first salvos of cyberwar are fired against the United States, the responsibility to defend the country falls to the president who, aided by advisers from the broad spectrum of government agencies and also the private sector, must feel his way along an uncertain path to decide the appropriate response.

Is the U.S. the nation most vulnerable to cyberattack?

Because possible return fire could come from traditional military, intelligence, diplomatic or economic agencies — and perhaps even from private business — the United States needs a set of policies and procedures for cyberwarfare that are still in the making, experts say.

The president’s top cyber adviser, Howard Schmidt, has said in interviews that the responsibility for cybersecurity is a shared responsibility between public and private sectors. And within the government it will be shared among government agencies but not in a well-defined way. “Who’s in charge?” asks Jamie Sanbower, the director of security for Force 3, an integrator that works with the federal government. “That’s the number-one challenge we’re facing right now.”