IG: Government Has No Digital Cyber Warning System

The departments of Homeland Security and Defense, including the National Security Agency, have no way of sharing current alerts about computer breaches with each other or industry, an inspector general memorandum reveals.

The problem is not an inability to document incidents, but, rather, an inability to alert potential victims as the situation unfolds and to provide instructions.

There is one system for circulating event reports, a separate one for circulating directions on how to respond, and no real-time system for joining the two, according to an Oct. 24 DHS IG report released this week. 

The missing technology should be housed at the 24-hour National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, a DHS organization that distributes information among civilian agencies, the intelligence community, Defense components and critical infrastructure sectors, such as the power industry.