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National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), which opened in
October 2009.

All of these pieces could have produced a clear strategic and tactical approach to improving our
national cyber risk profile, with a blueprint for incident response and consequence management.

Instead, we are still waiting for a completed NCIRP, a plan that has been in a Draft Interim
status since 2010.

And, elements of the Near Term Action Items included in the President’s Cyberspace Policy
Review from 2009 have not been implemented, including one that states “Initiate a national
public awareness and education campaign to promote cybersecurity.”

Finally, the recommendation from NSTAC in 2009 to create the public–private operational
capability has not been implemented as it was presented.

The result is a continuing lack of clarity around roles, responsibilities, and authorities related to
cyber incident response and consequence management. During a cyber emergency, this could
have serious ramifications.

A fully functional NCIRP with attendant “playbooks” is a national security imperative and is long
overdue. Bringing the stakeholder community back together to pursue a collaborative
approaching to revising, updating, and finalizing a NCIRP is an achievable outcome that will
provide additional clarity in an ever evolving cyber risk environment. Let’s get to it.

About the Author

Bob Dix is Juniper’s Vice President for Global Government Affairs and
Public Policy. He was Chair of the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure
Security from 2011 – 2014 and chaired the Information Technology
Sector Coordinating Council from 2008 – 2009. He has been an active
industry leader in efforts to improve cybersecurity and critical
infrastructure protection for more than 10 years. He served as Staff
Director for the House Subcommittee on Technology & Information Policy
during the 108 Congress.
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14 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – October 2014 Edition
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