The Consumer Technology Association's (CTA) has outlined to the Department of Commerce’s (DoC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) the actions that can be taken to address automated and distributed threats to the digital ecosystem as part of the activity directed by the President in Executive Order 13800, “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure.”

 
“We thank NTIA for their leadership and ability to provide a forum in which stakeholders develop practices that address challenging and important cybersecurity issues,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. “The unprecedented scale and continued sophistication of modern cyber threats mean the federal government and leading technology firms need to work together to safeguard our nation’s data, online transactions and power grid. Even as we work to improve and secure our digital and critical infrastructures, the federal government and congressional leaders need to create policies that equip engineers, scientists and other innovators to continue gaining the necessary skills to address evolving and complex cyber attacks.”
 

CTA encourages NTIA to use four guiding principles to advance and strengthen cybersecurity: 

• Establish market-driven solutions that reflect private sector leadership and innovation and that work globally; 

• Practice dynamic, flexible approaches that are more nimble and adaptive than cyber threats, as opposed to static checklist compliance; 

• Require mutually beneficial teamwork among governments, companies, and consumers with a real, active partnership that takes action against bad actors and elevates the contributions of the private sector and good actors; and

• Set a shared responsibility among all players in the internet/communications ecosystem and the government should avoid facile solutions that rely on one or two particular components.

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