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Citation[]

The White House, National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23: Cyber Security and Monitoring (Jan. 2008) (not available online).

Overview[]

In January 2008, the President issued this Directive and the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative to improve the federal government's cybersecurity efforts, including protecting against intrusion attempts and better anticipating future threats.

It assigned the Secretary of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General the responsibility for ensuring adequate support for the agents, analysis, and technical Infrastructure to neutralize, mitigate, and disrupt illegal computer activity aimed at domestic targets. In 2008 the President established the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) to implement the responsibilities outlined in the Presidential Directive.

The Directive also directed the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the heads of other sector-specific agencies, to submit a report detailing the policy and resource requirements for improving the protection of privately owned U.S. critical infrastructure networks. One of the recommendations contained in that report was for DHS to evaluate "the feasibility of sharing federally developed technology capabilities with the CIKR."

While the Directive is a classified document, US-CERT officials have stated that it includes steps to enhance cyber analysis related efforts, such as requirements that federal agencies implement a centralized monitoring tool and that the federal government reduce the number of connections to the Internet, referred to as Trusted Internet Connections.

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