PPP, solution to protecting critical infrastructure worldwide says U.S. NSA Centre

The United States National Security Agency’s (NSA) Cyber Command Centre, says Public-Private Partnership (PPP), is the solution to protecting critical infrastructure worldwide.

Ms. Morgan Adamski, U.S. Director of NSA’s Cybersecurity Command Center, said this during a three-week Cybersecurity Virtual Reporting Tour, on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ongoing program was organised by Foreign Press Centers (FPC).

Morgan, who spoke on the brief titled: “The Pivotal Importance of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Cooperation in Strengthening Security”, said that the focus of the centre was in threefold.

She said the threefold includes creating a forum to build a more comprehensive picture of the cyber threat landscape, protecting small to medium-sized and large companies that produce critical technologies for the U.S. military.

Morgan stated the last fold to be directly countering maligned influence on emerging technology standards such as fifth generation, sixth generation and cloud security, accordingly.

She said: “As we are here to discuss today, PPPs are not just nice to have, they are the solution to protect critical infrastructure worldwide.

“The focus of the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center is threefold: first and foremost, creating a forum to build a more comprehensive picture of the cyber threat landscape.

“Protecting small to medium-sized and large companies that produce critical technologies for the U.S. military, which we call the Defense Industrial Base, against nation-state threats.

“And directly countering maligned influence on emerging technology standards such as 5G, 6G, and cloud security.”

She, however, said that PPP should not be about seeking the mechanism or the platform for sharing, but should always be about its outcome that drives the format for the most successful collaboration.

“It is never about the mechanism or the platform for sharing in PPP. It should always be about the outcome that drives the format for the mostsuccessful collaboration.

“At the federal level, a collaborative approach is the cornerstone of our efforts.

“We leverage on the unique authorities of federal, civilian, law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies, and further integrate their operations.

“At the operational level, we have found that the secret to collaboration between the U.S. Government and the private sector is empowering the art of conversation,” she said.

The Director said analysts were needed to discuss, share information and analyse as they work through a problem or trying to understand a threat.

She said no agency or center had the capacity to collaborate with any organisation in the defense of data and systems against adversarial activity, adding that a distributed approach should be taken to a diverse and agile threat.

“We need analysts to talk to each other, sharing information and analysis as they are working through a problem or trying to understand a threat.

“That is when we discover new things, talk about alternatives analysis, and build the best mitigation guidance for all.

“No single agency or center has the capacity or the authority to collaborate with every organisation necessary to defend our data and systems against adversarial activity.

“Instead, we must take a network and distributed approach to a diverse and agile threat,” Morgan said. (NAN)