Obama Establishes New Security Rules For The White House

It wasn't a long time ago when Julian Assange managed to get a hold of several confidential and supposedly secure files from the Pentagon itself. Of course, he did it with the help of his accomplice, a low-ranking Army Intelligence Officer, Bradley Manning, who downloaded thousands of "untouchable" files from impenetrable networks and handed them over to the whistleblower site on a silver platter. Hence, raising questions and giving people something to talk about (God knows, how much we love a good rumor), through WikiLeaks.




In order to refrain from such mishaps in the future, President Obama has issued an order to boost and standardize federal data security measures.



Let's review what the President has planned for improving security within the walls of the Pentagon and the White House:

1. Committees and task forces are to be created that would be responsible for keeping a watch on access to classified networks and data controlled by federal agencies.

2. A senior official is to be appointed by the heads of all federal agencies to oversee the implementation of measures for controlling and monitoring access to classified information.

3. An insider threat-detection and prevention program is to be established by the official and has to oversee the agency's compliance with new policies and standards commanding the access and use of classified information.

4. A Classified Information Sharing and Safeguarding Office (CISSO) and an inter-agency Insider Threat Task Force committees are to be formed.

5. The committee will be responsible for formation of new inter-agency policies and standards for safeguarding and sharing classified information on government networks. It will be co-chaired by an executive from the White House Office of Management and Budget and will include representatives from the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security (DHS), the CIA, the National Security Agency and other agencies.

6. The U.S. Attorney General will take command of the insider threat task force and will be staffed by representatives from the FBI, the CIA, the DHS, the Departments of State, Defense and Justice, and other agencies.

6. The Secretary of Defense and the Director of the NSA will collectively be Executive Agents charged with developing technical policies and standards for protecting classified data.

The NY Times reports:

"And the military is accelerating the analysis of logs from computers on the classified networks to detect large transfers of data or the use of data that is unrelated to an individual’s job duties.

“It’s an additional tool to provide indicators that flag anomalous behavior, much as credit card companies monitor credit card use and a user’s profile,” said Teri Takai, the Defense Department’s chief information officer.”

It seems like President Obama isn't willing to take any chances regarding the security of all the Confidential Files that technically "DO NOT EXIST". Even if they don't, we appreciate President Obama's subtle way of doing things. As the President himself stated, 'Yes, We Can!!'