Obama Urged To Focus On Government Data Use

President-elect Barack Obama's administration should craft sound policies on government use of data -- especially in the national security context, cybersecurity expert Fred Cate told reporters at a Friday briefing sponsored by Hunton & Williams' Centre for Information Policy Leadership. "Nobody has said the current state of law is good -- even people who are advocates for less privacy protection in this area want clearer laws," said Cate, who is also director of Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. Nearly all the components of Obama's ambitious "change agenda," which includes reforms to the financial services sector, healthcare system and the economy, relate to the collection, use and processing of information, Abrams said. Privacy and information security are "at the top of the heap" and will be part of the regulatory, policy and legislative agenda going forward, he said.