Leahy Wants Cybercrime Measure Included in Controversial Defense Bill

A look at the week of November 28 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, the arrival of new Department of Homeland Security Deputy Undersecretary for Cybersecurity Mark Weatherford might lead to greater cooperation between DHS and the intelligence community.  Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants to attach cyber legislation to the defense authorization bill.  The Department of Defense is seeing significant savings in consolidating IT.


Cybersecurity Expert Hails New DHS Cyber Chief — New Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Undersecretary for Cybersecurity Mark Weatherford's arrival could "herald an era of greater balance in national cybersecurity leadership" between DHS and the intelligence community, according to a prominent cybersecurity expert, says The Hill. Weatherford was named to manage the department's cybersecurity operations last month after the resignation of Philip Reitinger, who is now chief information security officer at Sony.


Leahy Wants Cybercrime Measure Included in Controversial Defense Bill — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is looking for any way possible to gain approval for increased cybercrime penalties, including hitching the measure to a contentious defense authorization bill that could be dead in the water, reports National Journal. Leahy plans to try to amend the defense authorization bill to increase criminal penalties for certain kinds of cybercrimes, as well as prevent federal officials from prosecuting people who lie online.


Defense Sees $680 Million in Annual Savings from Data Center Consolidation — Nextgov.com reported on a recent report from the Pentagon , which found that consolidating data centers could save the Defense Department as much as $680 million a year by 2015. The effort is part of a government-wide data center consolidation that federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel expects will save the government $5 billion by 2015.