The official in charge of coordinating the US government’s cyber-security operations has quit, saying the expanding control of the National Security Agency over the nation’s computer security efforts poses “threats to our democratic processes.”

“Even from a security standpoint, it is unwise to hand over the security of all government networks to a single organization,” said Rod A. Beckstrom, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Center when speaking to United Press International.

“If our Founding Fathers were taking part in this debate [about the future organization of the government's cyber-security activities], there is no doubt in my mind they would support a separation of security powers among different [government] organizations, in line with their commitment to checks and balances,” he said.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week, Mr. Beckstrom said the NSA “dominates most national cyber efforts” and “effectively controls DHS cyber efforts through detailees, technology insertions and the proposed move” of the NCSC to an NSA facility at the agency’s Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.

“I believe this is a bad strategy on multiple grounds,” Mr. Beckstrom wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by UPI. “The intelligence culture is very different than a network operations or security culture. In addition, threats to our democratic processes are significant if all top-level government network security and monitoring are handled by any one organization.”

Source/Full Story: The New Media Journal

Related Items

• Does ‘Cyber-Security’ Mean More NSA Dragnet Surveillance?
  As network infrastructure has become an increasingly important part of our economy, there's been growing concern about the problems of cybersecurity. ...
• DHS Cybersecurity Plan Will Involve NSA, Telecoms
  The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on p...
• NSA Chief Continues Bid to Take Over Cybersecurity
  In the wake of the resignation on Friday of National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) Director Rod Beckstrom over concerns that the National Security Agen...
• NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’
  The government's national cybersecurity efforts would be in "grave peril" if they were dominated by the intelligence community, said Amit Yoran, forme...
• Cybersecurity chief Beckstrom resigns
  Source: ReutersThe U.S. government's director for cybersecurity resigned on Friday, criticizing the excessive role of the National Security Agency in...