DHS Secretary Chertoff Addresses Cybersecurity, FISA in Special Roundtable

By Andrew Cochran

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff welcomed a small group of blog editors to take our questions on a number of topics. I asked him for his response to Congressional criticisms of a new Bush Administration Cyber Initiative, as voiced most recently in a hearing last week, and the overall state of planning within DHS to enhance cybersecurity nationwide. He acknowledged that cybersecurity is "the one area where we're behind were I'd like to be" and that DHS has been "nibbling at the edges" until recently.

I also asked him whether he could state whether DHS investigative operations have been harmed by the expiration of the Protect America Act. He said that as a "consumer" of FISA-initiated information and not a "producer," he could not say whether ICE investigations have been harmed since the expiration. He added that he thinks the telecom companies deserve immunity when helping the intelligence community in terrorism cases in good faith. You can read the entire transcript as posted on the DHS website.

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