Tag: dhs

Better Government Cyber Security: don’t hold your breath

It is one thing to plan, something else entirely to turn it into reality:

The DHS plans to collocate private-sector employees from the
communications and IT industries with government workers at the U.S.
Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) facility here, said Gregory
Garcia, assistant secretary of cybersecurity and telecommunications at
the DHS. The teams will work jointly on improving US-CERT’s information
hub for cybersecurity, Garcia said. The agency didn’t specify a
starting date for the program but said it will begin soon.

Every corporation willing to give up a top-notch employee to a rotation to the government (out of the goodness of your heart, because you’ll have to eat their salary) raise your hand.

Every highly-skilled private sector employee willing to support two households for a year on your current salary and who is prepared to subject yourself to the grinding bureaucracy of DHS, line up over here.

That’s what I thought.

Mr. Assistant Secretary, you can’t do this on the cheap because you are going to get what you pay for. The money Uncle Sam paid your predecessor could comp industry for 3-4 great folks. A little COLA adjustment wouldn’t hurt either, but that’s icing. I’m assuming that since you came from a private-sector lobbying gig you understand how the economics works, so I’m also assuming that you are wed to this course of action because of circumstances that are out of your control. When this effort comes up short, you might want to begin a lobbying effort to change those circumstances.

$.02

Posted on by Mike 0

Indefatigable

Charlie Allen on following the conventional wisdom:

“Don’t listen too much to what others are telling you,” Mr. Allen said. “Constantly re-examine your assumptions.”

There was a time not that long ago when he backed the ideas of a few obscure folks who thought there was intel gold in what others said was a mountain of garbage: He/We were right and they were wrong, again.

If would also like to say that if anyone is going to make DHS intel work – and it has been broken from the get-go – it’ll be Charlie, but then I thought that about Gen Hughes too, and it’s not like the latter was some kind of slouch.

At a time when most of his peers are pretending they can still golf or contemplating the fine print in their long-term care plans, he’s still slugging it out for 15-hours a day. He could have sold out long ago and lived off the fat of his Rolodex, but there is a different beat playing on his mental iPod.

I still think a purge is in order, but if you had to make exceptions . . .

Posted on by Mike 2