PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that her department will emphasize cyber security because it’s an area that’s “ripe for attack by different sources.”
Napolitano said preventing or responding to attacks on computer networks is crucial to her department’s role.
She didn’t say who might launch a cyber attack but says private-sector infrastructure is of particular concern.
Napolitano spoke at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, headquarters of the U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for the military’s homeland security role. She met Thursday with Gen. Victor Renuart, commander of Northcom and NORAD, the U.S.-Canadian command that monitors air threats to the continent.
Napolitano said her department needs to help security agencies get advanced technology to combat cyber attacks.
“This is an area that Americans are beginning to realize is ripe for attack by different sources,” she said.
“The ability to detect, to prevent, to respond to quickly, in the private sector particularly, for infrastructure that is controlled by the private sector, is very key from the homeland security standpoint.”
Napolitano also said swine flu continues to spread in the United States and health officials are monitoring the evolution of the outbreak in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is getting underway, for clues about what the U.S. might face this fall.
She said her department and Northcom were still working closely to monitor the virus “because that strain of flu may actually rebound and come back, and we want to be prepared should that actually occur.”
Napolitano, who is under consideration by the Obama administration for a seat on the Supreme Court, said she has not communicated with the White House about the possibility. She refused to say whether she would accept the nomination if offered.
