Immediate Opportunities for Strengthening the Nation's Cybersecurity

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report which concludes that the federal government needs to lead by example when it comes to cybersecurity best practices.

PCAST -- which includes Google’s Eric Schmidt, Microsoft’s Craig Mundie and leaders from the country’s science and technology-focused universities — said the government should follow best practices to prevent cyberattacks. “The Federal Government rarely follows accepted best practices,” the group wrote. “It needs to lead by example and accelerate its efforts to make routine cyberattacks more difficult by implementing best practices for its own systems.” These best practices include using software that updates automatically, adopting secure browsers and phasing out “unsupported and insecure operating systems, such as Windows XP.” The report also encourages regulatory agencies to encourage best practices for the industries they regulate. (Nov 22)