Chertoff: A little patience, please

Billions of dollars are at stake, but Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff is asking for patience
when it comes to the national cybersecurity strategy.

The strategy, which will be the blueprint for billions
in spending on cybersecurity initiatives across government,
will not be released in full this year, he said.

"We are beginning our cyber strategy," he said.
"That will not be done this year, but I'm hoping we
can get it ? a cyber center ? up and running and
have a full set of plans and a funding budget to move
forward over the next several years to get to the next
level of cybersecurity."

The federal government is "nibbling at the edges" of
cybersecurity and needs to have a "game-changing
approach," he said. It needs to rationalize what it is
doing in the federal domain and get better control
over what enters that domain.

"The minimal thing we need to do is get our own
house in order," Chertoff said. "And that means herding
all the different cats of the executive branch agencies
into a kind of a single pen where we can have
some capability of detecting what's coming in and out
of the federal domain."