The Homeland Security Department’s cyber chief on Thursday countered the notion that every civilian agency should be responsible for managing their own digital risks and said federal leaders are considering ways to centralize those operations.
“The 99 federal civilian agencies all manage their own risk, all own their own networks—that is not a particularly defensible posture,” Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Tuesday in a speech at Auburn University. “In five years, I think you may see a completely different architecture across those 99 agencies.”
Already, he said, CISA is working with Congress and the Office of Management and Budget to explore new mechanisms to consolidate the government’s far-flung cybersecurity efforts. And while today CISA serves largely as the government’s risk advisor, Krebs suggested the organization is well-poised to take on a more active role.
“There may be some of those agencies that say ‘you know what I can’t do this anymore, somebody else do it for me,’” he said. “Whether we do it or someone else does it, it’s got to change. We need to make sure we [understand] what’s…
