Congress Critiques DHS Cybersecurity Efforts at Recent Hearings

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sustained more bashing of its cybersecurity efforts from politicians and government auditors. In what has become a familiar refrain, a chorus of Republicans and Democrats--all from the U.S. House of Representatives panel on telecommunications and the Internet--urged the agency to get its act together and appoint a long-awaited cybersecurity czar.

Then, at a sparsely attended afternoon hearing here, members of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security panel grilled department officials about shortcomings in the Homeland Security Information Network, which was intended to ease sharing of counterterrorism information among federal, state and local investigators. During the morning hearing, politicians voiced dismay at the unsurprising findings of a Government Accountability Office report that was released Wednesday and that had been prepared at the committee's request.