Homeland Security moves full-speed-ahead on Einstein cybersecurity tool

The Homeland Security Department will finish by 2012 installing a somewhat controversial system, called Einstein 2, that monitors traffic on federal computer networks for potential intrusions, and will start the next phase of the application, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said during an address on the state of the agency.

The delivery began what she said will become an annual tradition akin to the president's State of the Union speech. Napolitano's remarks touched on the status and future of missions related to counterterrorism; border security and immigration; cybersecurity, science and technology; resilience and response; and recruiting. Einstein 2 alerts the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to respond whenever it detects unauthorized users trying to access government systems. Einstein 3, which DHS began testing last year, automatically responds to certain threats. Privacy advocates have raised concerns that the extent of Einstein's information sharing is unknown because parts of the initiative are classified. But according to the department's privacy assessment, personnel have access to a limited amount of information on network traffic, and cannot see the content of that traffic.