ISA Endorses Industry-Civil Liberties Cybersecurity Document

March 8, 2011

The Internet Security Alliance is pleased be a part of an unprecedented coalition of industry and civil liberties organizations in releasing a detailed white paper on cyber security policy.

The organizations constructed the paper in coordination with their members and sponsors. The sponsoring organizations are the Business Software Alliance, The Center for Democracy and Technology, The Internet Security Alliance, TechAmerica and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The paper embraces the general model of a voluntary public-private partnership previously articulated in a range of government documents including the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and the Cyber Space Policy Review (CSPR). However, it argues that this model needs to be strengthened and enhanced to create a sustainable system of national cyber security that protects individual rights and the nation’s economy both of which are now reliant on cyber information systems. The paper follows the organization of the CSPR and extends the strategy laid out there with specific policy recommendations.

The organizations that constructed the paper hope and anticipate that it will be understood by policy makers as the consensus industry/civil liberties position on a wide range of specific issues related to cyber security.  The paper does not make any statements about specific legislative vehicles. It was created early in the legislative to enable policy makers to follow the approach outlined in the paper and implement the paper’s recommendations through whatever legislative vehicles are appropriate to their jurisdiction.

“ISA is especially pleased to be part of this extraordinary coalition,” ISA President Larry Clinton said. “Typically, coalitions of this size can only come to agreement on very broad principles.  When it comes to enhancing our nation’s cyber security we understand that the devil is in the details. That’s why we have worked over the past six months to hammer out very specific policy positions that can be embraced by both Internet providers and Internet customers in a way that protects our national security, our economy and our civil liberties.

“The vast majority of both the equipment that makes up the Internet system as well as the expertise that manages it resides in private hands. This paper articulates how government, industry, and the civil liberties community can work together in an enhanced partnership along the lines laid out by by the government in the Cyber Space Policy Review so that the appropriate incentives are put in place to develop a sustainable system of cyber security” Clinton said.

Advance copies of the paper have been provided both to the White House and key congressional offices dealing with cyber security.

| ISA Endorses Industry-Civil Liberties Cybersecurity Document

Tags: