CSIA Reports on Unpreparedness

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) today announced its support for the recommendations released today by Business Roundtable in a report on the nation's readiness to deal with cyber disruptions. The report, Essential Steps Toward Strengthening America's Cyber Terrorism Preparedness, demonstrates that the U.S. is ill- prepared to handle a catastrophic cyber disruption and offers constructive strategies for improvement.

"The Business Roundtable report breaks the problem down to a simple statement: we are not prepared. We have seen such warnings before and they have not been heeded -- witness the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Government must make information infrastructure resiliency a higher priority," said Paul Kurtz, executive director of CSIA. "The report makes clear that information systems are essential and that a massive cyber disruption could have a cascading, long-term impact without adequate coordination between government and the private sector. The stakes are too high for continued government inaction. CSIA fully supports the findings released in this report and applauds the Roundtable's leadership."

Today's report is the culmination of a year's work by top businesses led by the Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs of the nation's leading companies. Identifying ways to harden the Internet has been one of the main priorities of the Roundtable's Security Task Force because a properly functioning Internet is essential to the continuity of the nation's economy.

Last December, CSIA urged Congress and the Administration to implement 13 recommendations to help improve the privacy, reliability and integrity of information, five of which deal with the security and reliability of information infrastructure," said Kurtz. "We have seen little progress on these recommendations and today's Business Roundtable report only strengthens the argument for greater government attention to this important issue. CSIA urges government and business to heed these warnings and work together to demonstrate more leadership in protecting our nation's digital infrastructure."

Cyber Security Industry Alliance