Former White House CIO Calls for a Cybersecurity Reset


The IT community needs a total reset in the way they think about cybersecurity, according to former White House CIO Theresa Payton.

“I think back ten years and I realize that we actually haven’t made a single one of your security problems go away, and you need to hold us accountable for that,” Payton said. “Name one. We have reduced risks in the security industry, name a problem we actually made go away for you,” she said. “But I’m really excited because I think we are at a turning point where we’ll have that opportunity.”

Payton, who spoke at the Forcepoint Cybersecurity Leadership Forum on Tuesday, described how the government has characterized bringing breach detection times down from over 400 days to a little more than 200 as a win in cybersecurity.

“I’ve got to tell you, this does not feel like winning to me,” Payton said.

Payton, who currently stars as the head of intelligence on the CBS reality show Hunted, explained that cybersecurity professionals often see the behavior of non-cyber employees in the same way that audience members view the mistakes of fugitive contestants on the show. To an outside observer, the behaviors look idiotic, and the expert is unable to figure out how to correct the behavior.

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Source: MeriTalk.