CSIS Takes 16 Months to Research Obvious

On December 8th, 2008 the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report titled "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency"

"...that recommends that President-elect Obama establish a new National Office for Cyberspace in the Executive Office of the President and appoint a new assistant for cyberspace to run that office."

As I read that on GSN Magazine's online site I couldn't help but think to myself... duh? The report proposes a merging of the existing National Cyber Security Center and the Joint Inter-Agency Cyber Task Force - and work for the National Security Council. The new office would be called the National Office for Cybersecurity (NOC)... This report makes a few interesting points...

1. I can't believe it takes a group of intelligent people 16 months to make this recommendation
2. Cyber Security is finally going to be taken seriously at the National Security Council level
3. It's taken incident after incident for our government to take cyber security seriously
4. The BSA jumped in immediately after the report was released... and agered (??)
5. The report recommends the government only buy "secure" products and services - but notes that those standards are yet to be developed...
6. The NOC (National Office of for Cyberspace) should be working with NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) to protect SCADA systems powering America's critical infrastructure
   

Incredibly, those of us who have been working in information security for years could have probably made these points and similar recommendations with about 5 seconds of thought... not 16 months of research. Again... an excellent waste of time to make an obvious point.