DHS study praises IT sector’s resiliency

A new report from the Department of Homeland Security and a private-sector coalition has given the nation’s digital infrastructure high marks for its resiliency in the face of cyber attacks.

Working with the Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council (IT SCC), DHS earlier this week released its IT Sector Baseline Risk Assessment (PDF), a tool to identify and prioritize cyber threats.

Drawing on extensive field research, the report offers scenarios modeling potential threats and recommendations for how to mitigate risk.

“While elements of the assessment have already been adopted, the establishment of this iterative platform for assessing IT sector risk will also enable us to address ever more sophisticated threats,” Gregory Schaffer, DHS’ assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, said in a statement.

As a joint effort between DHS and IT SCC, the new assessment is an example of the sort of public-private partnership that is widely seen as the lynch pin to effective cybersecurity policy.

IT SCC counts several dozen big-name tech firms as members, including Microsoft, Cisco and Google.