First responder network will be secure, chief assures lawmakers

Strong cybersecurity will be built in to a nascent network for emergency first responders, its director said at a Tuesday hearing.

“We have a unique opportunity as we develop a network that’s going to be deployed that we can start from the beginning and bake in security from day one,” said TJ Kennedy, the acting executive director of FirstNet.

{mosads}The questions from lawmakers about the security of the network come after several high profile data breaches, including the hacking of the Office of Personnel Management. That intrusion exposed the personal information of millions of federal employees, officials say.

Kennedy said that FirstNet had hired Glenn Zimmerman as a security architect. Zimmerman will lead the organization’s “cybersecurity planning and development of the network from a cyber perspective,” he said.

He also said that the organization would draw from the private sector to understand how best to secure the network.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” he told lawmakers. “We’re leveraging a lot of best practices that are in place both in the private sector and in government today.”

It’s been a difficult period for the FirstNet organization, which has been plagued by allegations of mismanagement. A Department of Commerce inspector general’s report found that the organization had not done enough to screen for and mitigate conflicts of interest among its board members.

But lawmakers on Tuesday praised what they said was progress FirstNet had made under new management — even as they sought to continue their oversight of the program.

FirstNet was conceived after the September 11 attacks, when many first responders had incompatible communication systems. It was authorized by Congress in 2012.