What'd You Learn in School Today?

Sharing. This key kindergarten lesson has many real-life applications, including a few in cyberspace. Collaboration and teamwork are the keys to effective cybersecurity programs, according to Homeland Security Department officials.

In a hearing before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee on Thursday, Philip Reitinger, deputy undersecretary for the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate, and Michael Brown, deputy assistant secretary for the directorate's Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, testified that teamwork, from intraagency to international, is critical to addressing cyber threats. The department's fiscal 2011 budget request supports a number of collaborative projects. For example:

• The new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center will unify watch operations of voice and cyber communications.
• A partnership with the Defense Department and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center is piloting the bidirectional sharing of cybersecurity information.
• The department will participate in governmentwide cyber initiatives and help maintain interagency training programs.

Outreach programs will spend nearly $7 million on National Cybersecurity Awareness Month activities (October each year), collaborative partnerships with local, state and international jurisdictions and the development of standards and protocols. However, this request is nearly $2.5 million lower than in fiscal 2010.

Cybersecurity is one of the department's five priority missions, as outlined in the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review completed earlier this year.