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IBM hosted a Cyber Security Leadership Summit in Boston on November 18. It was interesting for someone like me (who is constantly immersed in the Washington discussions on cyber issues) to hear cyber security discussed as a local issue. For these folks, it is not an intellectual or philosophical discussion; it is not even the grand strategic problem we normally hear about in DC. It is a tactical and completely real issue that has implications for people whose faces these men know.

The Hindustan Times recently published an article arguing that if India had only invested in IT systems with a common information pool, the Mumbai attacks could have been prevented because information had been received elsewhere that Mumbai was a target. It’s interesting to see IT portrayed as the panacea solution to countering the threat of terrorism. As with countering any human-based threat, a capability must be created. But buying the IT isn’t enough.

With the news of former TSA Administrator David Stone’s untimely death, two events compressed in my mind: TSA relocating to the Department of Homeland Security with President Bush signing the Homeland Security Act of 2002; and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. It is my hope that we remember the “right” lessons from these events; that we honor the public servants and private sector folks who work so diligently to make us safer and more secure, and that we are ever vigilant against those who would do us harm.

A recent article in Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security edition looked into a very different aspect of our government’s cyber security efforts. CQ visited the Cyber Crimes Center belonging to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The article relayed that even DHS officials are surprised when they visit the center and discover that a cyber security organization in DHS is not involved with infrastructure protection, hackers and related issues.

On November 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the subject of cyber security. An FBI witness said his organization considers “the cyber threat to our nation to be one of the greatest concerns of the twenty-first century.” He later said that cyber-based attacks and high tech crime were the FBI’s highest criminal priority.

Once again it is time to revisit the issue of Congressional meddling into the operations of DHS. As has been well established by many commentators, myself included, the only item from the 9-11 Commission’s Report that has yet to be implemented is the consolidation of congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security.

Recently, the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on the issue of aircraft foreign repair station security. And while the Committee’s oversight on this issue is commendable, the hearing lacked one important item: an updated risk assessment. This omission, along with the testimony of three union representatives, suggests that security at foreign repair stations continues to be a Trojan horse for some.

The U.S. Chamber held another meeting in the very helpful series of exchanges between Business and Government. The event focused on the nascent strategy for securing online transactions and was sponsored by two of the Chamber’s internal organizations: the National Security Task Force and the Telecommunication and E-Commerce Committee. The government participants were Tom Donahue and Ely Kahn, the Directors for Cyber Policy on the National Security Staff. On the Business side, besides a good presence form the Chamber itself, there were representatives from Telecoms big and small.

On Tuesday night, I had a drink with more than a hundred friends and what I call my extended family. Many of them I knew; others I didn’t but they were still family. We gathered in a bar in Georgetown to celebrate a unique bond we all share – securing our homeland. We were Republicans, Democrats and Independents. We were creatures of the inner Beltway and from every other corner of the United States.

Cyber security continues to be a hot topic. October was Cyber Security Month, and it was filled with conferences, academic discussions, and bold pronouncements by industry groups and individual firms. In my mind, we are forgetting a key element, and the one attempt to address it was lost in the noise. A consumer security software company named AVG released a white paper that focused not on their products, but rather, on personal responsibility. Perhaps the public was tired of cyber security by then, perhaps it was just not “cool” enough; I just know it was completely overlooked.

Here at Adfero Group, I’ve been working with AVG and Shop.org who are teaming in a series of social media strategies aimed at spreading the word about how to shop safely online while finding the best bargains of the holiday season. Over the past few months, AVG, a global cyber company, initiated a dialogue here in Washington, D.C., to stress the importance of individual responsibility in cyber security.

As the anniversary of another terrorist attack approaches, the questions remain: Are we safer than we were before the attacks, and are we doing the right things to prevent another attack? Those were the questions on the minds of participants this past week in Mumbai, India, at the second Security and Resiliency Summit co-sponsored by London First and Bombay First – held on the cusp of the first anniversary of the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008.

With the spike in border violence, much of it associated with Mexican drug cartels battle with the Mexican government, we have a greater need than ever to fill the positions of the agencies responsible for protecting our borders — from the DEA and ATF to Customs and Border Protection.

The Coast Guard adopts new policies after scare on the Potomac. Don’t expect the same from CNN.

This week, Congressional Quarterly ran a chemical security-related article that highlighted how a process known as on-site generation can be used to augment a reliance on chlorine for water purification. As chemical security legislation (H.R. 2868) moves from the House to the Senate, it’s my hope that legislators will stay focused on the issue of security, rather than getting lost on the issue of process.

In an interview with CQ Homeland Security, Security Debrief’s Rich Cooper makes the case as to why TSA nominee Erroll Southers would make a good leader for the federal law enforcement agency.

The Border Patrol Foundation held its first annual recognition dinner in downtown D.C. to tout the creation of an organization whose mission is to “provide timely financial grants to the families of fallen” Border Patrol agents. Border Patrol agents often operate alone, in remote areas of our nation, many minutes and miles from backup or support. But given the impressive support shown by the Washington community at its inaugural event on Friday night, the Border Patrol Foundation appears to be off to a solid start.

With the probable execution of John Allen Muhammad in Virginia this week and the tragic rampage at Fort Hood by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, still fresh in the American public’s memory, the term “terrorism” is being used quite a bit by the news media. While there are those who would seek to link the two very different incidents to one another, is it proper to use the word “terrorism” to accurately describe what these men did?

Two miles from home, on what had been a typical evening, I sat on a Metrobus last week and saw a bright orange flash cut through the dark night – 50 feet in front of us, a car erupted in flames. To my horror, someone was inside. When action was needed, four brave men ran to the burning car to answer their unexpected call to duty. At its very essence, this is Homeland Security – it’s America in action.

DoD has recently launched a new website — Defense.gov — that integrates all of the latest social media tools into DoD’s website and communications strategies. DoD is perhaps the most traditional and operational-security-conscious department in the federal government; nonetheless, it is moving aggressively to join the online debate already taking place — and inadvertently highlighting just how far behind the Department of Homeland Security is when it comes to engaging the public via the crucial social media environment.