
The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative
President Obama has identified cybersecurity as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, but one that we as a government or as a country are not adequately prepared to counter. Last year the President accepted recommendations of the resulting Cyberspace Policy Review which was built on the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), the success of which will largely depend on the strategic foundational capabilities within the Government (including funding within the federal law enforcement, intel, and defense communities to enhance key functions such as criminal investigation, and intelligence gathering, processing, and analysis).
Enhanced information sharing is the cornerstone of this new initiative that carves out extensive provisions to address the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. It is this administration’s goal to improve public understanding of Federal efforts, and in this vein the Cybersecurity Coordinator has released a summary description of the CNCI.
The CNCI is a highly classified program, and only the brief declassified description has been released. Most of the information that is not classified is categorized as 'For Official Use Only'. These restrictions preclude public education, awareness and debate about the policy and legal issues, real or imagined, that the initiative poses in the areas of privacy and civil liberties. (But without a clear delineation of legal authorities and implementation mechanisms, the scope for meaningful public discussion seems limited).