NSTAC Meeting to Look at National Cyber Response

Today DHS published a meeting notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 43058-43059) concerning a public teleconference of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) on August 13^th, 2014. Briefing materials for the meeting will be available on the NSTAC web site on August 1^st.

The current agenda includes reviews of the status of two on-going NSTAC studies:

• The needs, benefits, and operational efficacy of a national Information and Communications Technology mobilization capability in the face of a cyber-related event of national significance.

• The cybersecurity implications of the Internet of Things as it relates to national security and emergency preparedness.

Interestingly there is nothing in the mobilization capability scoping document that would seem to indicate that NSTAC is considering anything beyond IT type cyber incidents. While this is a telecommunications advisory committee, this still seems to be extremely short sighted.

Public comments on the above topics are being solicited by NSTAC. People wishing to make live comments on the teleconference need to register in advance. Written comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # DHS-2014-0032).