Tiffany Jones, director, Public Sector Programs and Strategy

As one might expect, details are scarce in the declassified version of the DoD’s first-ever cyberspace guidelines (released last Thursday). But from a 30,000 foot perspective, the policy looks sounds.

Consider the five key tenets (or “strategic initiatives”) contained in the directive:

1: Treat cyberspace as a domain for training and equipping defense forces

2: Employ new defense operating concepts

3: Create strong partnerships between agencies and with the private sector

4: Build relationships with foreign allies

5: Leverage U.S. innovation

These are worthy goals, to be sure (in particular, the overarching themes of operational preparedness and information sharing). Even without the details, it’s heartening to see fundamentally sound priorities for a DoD infrastructure that houses—quite possibly—more sensitive information...

John Bordwine, chief technology officer, Symantec Public Sector organization

What you’re seeing with the latest rash of cyber security incidents is a point we’ve been trying to emphasize for some time now:  With regards to protecting information, the emphasis should be on securing the information and not the devices or the infrastructure.  In addition, more folks are starting to use devices of their own choice to do their job, whether they may or may not be sanctioned by an agency’s IT department.  When you throw in growing use of the cloud and how folks are taking advantage of social networking groups and social media communication for work purposes, it makes focusing on the device even more obsolete.  As such, in my opinion, you’re going to see IT departments become more responsible for managing information, and also developing new policies and practices around the expanding infrastructure.  It used to be when you needed a...