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This direction would ensure the fracturing of the effort and is further demonstrated in the lack of
overall coordination, even with the various government cyber centers, departments, and
agencies.

Over the five-and-a-half years since the NCCIC launched, some progress has been made in the
ability to send out a great deal of information. However, measuring success based only on the
volume and number of threat indicators issued fails to understand that absent the necessary
analysis to identify the most prevalent threat vectors and what measures, if in place, would
prevent or reduce the impact of an attack is a huge gap in delivering a truly meaningful and
productive capability.

If we could move beyond the government’s “we have to be in charge” mentality to one of true
partnership and collaboration with stakeholders in industry, government, academia, and our
international partners, then we could collectively make significant progress toward improving our
national critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, and resilience.

Taking lessons from the successes built by the National Weather Service and the Centers for
Disease Control to achieve timely, reliable, and actionable situational awareness through
information sharing, analysis, and collaboration, we could set a course for an operational
capability in cybersecurity that would improve our ability to detect, prevent, and mitigate cyber
events, and contribute to making our nation safer and more secure.
We can get started today, we can get this done – let’s get to it.

About the Author

Bob Dix is Juniper’s Vice President for Global Government Affairs and
Public Policy. He was Chair of the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure
Security from 2011–2014 and chaired the Information Technology Sector
Coordinating Council from 2008–2009. He has been an active industry leader
in efforts to improve cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection for
more than 10 years. He served as Staff Director for the House Subcommittee
on Technology & Information Policy during the 108th Congress.

35 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2015 Edition
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