Napolitano recruits at UC Berkeley for cyber techs

The U.S. government must collaborate with academia and businessto protect the country against cyberattacks, Secretary of HomelandSecurity Janet Napolitano told UC Berkeley students Monday.

Priorities include protecting critical infrastructures such asnuclear power plants and stock exchanges, as well as civil libertiesand privacy, Napolitano said. She added that development of anInternet kill switch during a national emergency is a policy thatwon't come from her office.

Napolitano has been talking to university students since Januaryabout the need for new people in the government's quest forcybersecurity and has visited schools like MIT and George WashingtonUniversity.

About 150 students attended Napolitano's hourlong talk at UCBerkeley's Sibley Auditorium on Monday afternoon. Earlier in theday, she met with Los Angeles law enforcement officials.

Napolitano said her cybersecurity department tripled in size from2009 to 2010. She quoted a private company as saying cyberattacksincreased by 93 percent from 2009 to 2010.

"So we still need more people," Napolitano said. "I'm talking tothe students here. We need a strong and innovative group to take onthis incredible challenge that protections of cyberspace demand. Wewant to be as creative and innovative as possible."

Business needs to "redouble its efforts in the quality ofproducts" it offers to fend off hacking, spamming, spoofing and thelike, she said.

"We need technologists who understand policymaking," Napolitanosaid. "We need technologically savvy people to come work with us.This is an area where we have our greatest challenge and need. We'redealing with multiple risks at the same time."

Napolitano said the U.S. government and industry need to movetoward an automated response to cyberattacks that will reduce thetime needed to react to a crisis. Part of that is a "strategy fortrusted identities in cyberspace."

Instead of having user names and passwords that are different foreach secure website, Napolitano said a better approach might be touse a single credential for all websites. "Dozens of companies couldoffer this," she said.

All the new protections the government is working on also mustinclude need for privacy and civil liberties, she said.

"We have always viewed our government as having limitations whereprivacy is concerned," Napolitano said. "One of the reasons we havelawyers sitting next to our technology staff at the (NationalSecurity Agency) is because we understand and embrace the notionthat there are real values at issue here."

Napolitano shied away from a question from the audience aboutwhether the government could design an Internet kill switch to ceasecommunications in times of national emergency, "I think there is avery good chance Congress will take up cyber legislation this year,"Napolitano said. "The idea of an absolute Internet kill switch, I'mnot sure how much potency that has legislatively, but it will bepart of the dialogue. Stay tuned."