Information Sharing Needs for National Security

The speed of today's networks has significantly increased in the last decade as has the speed intruders and malicious code can affect these networks. Society has become increasingly connected and dependent on the Internet. At the same time, effectively addressing attacks on the Internet and the critical infrastructures is becoming increasingly complex. Sharing security-related information has been a hot topic since the events of September 11, 2001. Much has been said about the need to transform the attitudes of the intelligence and security communities to foster information sharing. The mechanisms to accomplish this, however, have not been fully developed especially in the cyber arena. To deal with cyber attacks conducted on high-speed networks requires an organized approach from local cyber first-responders to national-level federal agencies. This paper examines the need for high-speed mechanisms to share information between industry and various levels of the government to address national security issues.