Tech companies leery of sharing cyber threats with feds

WASHINGTON — U.S. tech companies still don't trust the federal government enough to share information about cyber threats, the top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.

"My top priority is building that trust," said Phyllis Schneck, the department's deputy under secretary for cybersecurity and communications for the National Protection and Programs Directorate.

Privacy concerns have grown in the wake of the 2013 revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the agency was collecting phone and other data on millions of Americans not suspected of any crime, often with the help of tech companies.

The tech industry is now seeking to convince customers that their personal data will be protected from government surveillance as well as from hackers. But companies have yet to overcome the backlash they faced for complying with government orders to turn over emails, photos and other data.

"It's very hard for companies to be optically aligned with the U.S. government," Schneck said at a Cybersecurity Technology Summit hosted by the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association."But there has never been a more important time to build that trust."

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Companies will become more trusting when the federal government can begin "showing value" to them by providing effective information to battle cyber criminals while still protecting Americans' privacy and civil liberties, Schneck said.

Both the Obama administration and Congress are pushing for more information-sharing between the business community and the federal government so that the private and public sectors can help one another detect and thwart cyber criminals.

President Obama announced an executive order in February to create a process for information-sharing. Last month, both the Senate and House intelligence committees passed bills that would give companies protection from lawsuits when they share cyber threat information with the government.

William Evanina, head of national counterintelligence for the U.S. government, said the government is working to be able to provide companies with information beyond just who is hacking them.

"We want to put context on what they (the hackers) are doing," he said. "What's the intent of the person who is doing it? Who else is being hit the same way?"

That information will help the government and private companies do a better job of figuring out how to thwart cyber criminals, Evanina said.

He said many hackers laugh at how easy it is to get victims to click on a link that allows the criminals to get around a company's cybersecurity system.

"They've just got to send us a cool video," Evanina said.

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