New agency to sniff out threats in cyberspace

Maybe it shouldn't bother me as much as it does... oh hell, yes it should.

This piece ran, above the fold, front page, column one in the Washington Post this morning. It was the first headline that I read as I had my morning coffee and poached eggs before heading out to the second day of my conference.  

According to the Washington Post:

"The Obama administration is establishing a new agency to combat the deepening threat from cyberattacks, and its mission will be to fuse intelligence from around the government when a crisis occurs.

The agency is modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center, which was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks amid criticism that the government failed to share intelligence that could have unraveled the al-Qaeda plot." 

Here's the deal...  The government is preparing to build yet another cyber fusion center --a group that can reach across the stovepipes and pull together the story in time of cyber crisis. This, on the heals of hacks into Sony —because movies are important right? 

So another $35 mil spend to stand up a new 50 person team just bothers the hell out of me. Why? Well, first, $35 mil in DC is what they call budget dust. It’s not a lot of money inside the beltway (of course, it is to the rest of us!).. But the idea that it's ANOTHER $35 mil spent on top of the others in the space --NSA, DHS, FBI, DoD, US Cyber Command --all have or are cyber organizations in our government, and the last time I checked, DHS had the mission for coordinating across the stovepipes. So my thinking? Why are we spending another $35 mil (and this is only the first year folks), to built another cyber organization instead of forcing the existing agencies to do their job? 

So, who's losing cyber budget to stand up the new team? Call me. I'd be happy to offer up a few recommendations.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-to-create-national-center-to-counter-cyberspace-intrusions/2015/02/09/a312201e-afd0-11e4-827f-93f454140e2b_story.html?hpid=z5)