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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will crank up its work on cybersecurity, including projects with vendors to develop technologies for domestic security in the coming months, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.

Chertoff, speaking at the InfraGard National Conference here, also called on private companies to make more of an effort to protect their cyber infrastructure. He also advocated more incentives for IT vendors to focus on cybersecurity. InfraGard is an organization started by the FBI to improve information- sharing on critical infrastructure between the U.S. government and private industry.

Nudging Industry to Help

One way to encourage private companies to develop cybersecurity products is legal reform that limits damages from product lawsuits, Chertoff said.

He mentioned the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002 (SAFETY Act), which limits liability for products designed to combat terrorism after a terrorist attack, but he suggested Congress should go further in protecting companies from product lawsuits.

Private companies should already have good reasons to protect their own cyber infrastructure, however, he said. "There's also a very strong business case to be made for private sector investment in security," he said. "In today's threat environment, active security measures are critical to businesses themselves, because the cost of an attack will very, very greatly outweigh the cost of protection."
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Read More / Source: PC World