White House’s Cybersecurity Framework Highlights Need For Preparedness

The White House recently announced the official launch of the Cybersecurity Framework, which provides voluntary guidelines for both public and private organizations operating as part of the "critical infrastructure" to create or improve upon their defenses and response protocols for cyber-attacks. The framework was drafted as a result of the President's February 12, 2013 Executive Order 13636 called for the development of a "prioritized, flexible, repeatable, performance-based, and cost-effective approach" for assisting organizations responsible for "critical infrastructure services" to manage cybersecurity risk. In October, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology released a Preliminary Framework. The release of the Preliminary Framework was followed by a 45-day public comment period.