Cybersecurity

Homeland Security secretary: Cybersecurity tool Einstein is good and getting better

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said cybersecurity is a top priority for the department — right alongside counterterrorism. So, after news outlets reported on a recent critical review from the Government Accountability Office, Johnson released a statement defending the department’s premiere cybersecurity tool: Einstein.

Agency and program managers are required to comment on GAO and inspector general reports but it is rare to have a secretary release a statement in response to an individual report.

...“The first two phases of the Einstein program have been deployed across all federal civilian departments and agencies,” he said. “This now allows us to detect cybersecurity threats and Einstein has in fact proven invaluable to identify significant incidents.”

The third phase — dubbed Einstein 3 Accelerated, or E3A — by blocking malicious traffic. Though, as both GAO and Johnson note, the system can only block known threat vectors. Even so, the secretary said E3A has blocked some 700,000 attacks to-date and is available to all government agencies.