In an interview with Forbes on Monday, Beckstrom expanded on his letter, adding that the NSA’s central role in the Cyber Initiative prevented the private sector from participating in information sharing projects–a collaborative side of the initiative aimed at protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure, such as power plants, banks and telecommunications networks, from cyberspies and hackers.

“In intelligence environments like the NSA, you seek out and gather information, and then you classify it,” Beckstrom says. “It’s the opposite of collaboration.”

Beckstrom added that while the NSA gains power under the Cyber Initiative, his branch of the DHS has been chronically under-funded by the DHS and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The National Cyber Security Center received less than $500,000 over the last year, the equivalent of five weeks of operation, according to Beckstrom.

That imbalance between his group and the NSA makes private sector cooperation more difficult, he argues. “Clearly there are companies that are comfortable working in classified environments, and there are those that aren’t,” he says. “That would be one reason to support a credible, civilian, independent component like the NCSC. Otherwise, we’d lose those relationships we gained by bringing [these companies] into the fold.”

Source: Forbes.com

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