[ISN] Current 'Whac-A-Mole' cybersecurity approach not a winner, DHS official says

[InfoSec News <alerts@infosecnews.org>]

http://fcw.com/articles/2009/11/06/web-dhs-mcconnell-cybersecurity.aspx

By Ben Bain
FCW.com
Nov 06, 2009

Current computer security efforts resemble the arcade game "Whac-A-Mole" 
and demonstrate the overall need for a more secure cyber ecosystem, 
according to senior DHS cybersecurity official Bruce McConnell.

"A threat pops up here, we whack it down, and another one comes up here
- this is the environment that many of your enterprise cybersecurity 
official, told a crowd of information technology vendors Nov. 5. "We 
can't continue to play Whac-A-Mole; we've got to move forward and have a 
fundamentally more secure [cyber] ecosystem."

McConnell said current conditions aren.t sufficient because of the very 
large number of people online, the increasingly complexity of computer 
networks, and the economic and security importance of IT systems.

"[W]e can't get there - to real security - today, but at the same time 
we have to continue to work to secure where we are today, [while] at the 
same time planning for tomorrow," he said.

McConnell said a more secure cyber environment will require:

[...]