U.S. opens new centre to fight cybercrime

Sen. Joe Lieberman, who is also chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said that legislation being drafted by his committee will require federal agencies and private companies to set up a system to share information on cyber threats.

After unveiling the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Centre in northern Virginia, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explained that the watch centre will allow technology experts that monitor government networks to work better together.

The centre's operations will merge with the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and the National Coordinating Centre for Telecommunications to better facilitate cooperation. The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Centre consists of computer stations spread across the building, including walls of broad video screens, that displayed vivid charts and maps of possible cyber threats and suspicious Internet traffic.

Government computers suffer the highest risk to cyber attacks as officials have revealed that government computer systems are probed or scanned millions of times a day from remote sources looking to steal money, information or state secrets.

President Barack Obama has recently declared that computer security be made a priority and the unveiling of the new centre reflects his administration's determination to make the internet a safer place. However, Obama has been struggling for several months to appoint a new cyber coordinator. Several executives have turned the job down, and critics and cyber experts say it is a nearly impossible job to fill.