OREANDA-NEWS. In a world where hackers can sabotage power plants and impact elections, there has never been a more crucial time to examine cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, most of which is privately owned.

According to MIT experts, over the last 25 years presidents from both parties have paid lip service to the topic while doing little about it, leading to a series of short-term fixes they liken to a losing game of “Whac-a-Mole.” This scattershot approach, they say, endangers national security.

In a new report based on a year of workshops with leaders from industry and government, the MIT team has made a series of recommendations for the Trump administration to develop a coherent cybersecurity plan that coordinates efforts across departments, encourages investment, and removes parts of key infrastructure like the electric grid from the internet.

Coming on the heels of a leak of the new administration’s proposed executive order on cybersecurity, the report also recommends changes in tax law and regulations to incentivize private companies to improve the security of their critical infrastructure. While the administration is focused on federal systems, the MIT team aimed to address what’s left out of that effort: privately-owned critical infrastructure.

“The nation will require a coordinated, multi-year effort to address deep strategic weaknesses in the architecture of critical systems, in how those systems are operated, and in the devices that connect to them,” the authors write. “But we must begin now. Our goal is action, both immediate and long-term.”

Entitled “Making America Safer: Toward a More Secure Network Environment for Critical Sectors,” the 50-page report outlines seven strategic challenges that would greatly reduce the risks from cyber attacks in the sectors of electricity, finance, communications and oil/natural gas. The workshops included representatives from major companies from each sector, and focused on recommendations related to immediate incentives, long-term research and streamlined regulation.

The report was published by MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI) at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in conjunction with MIT’s Center for International Studies (CIS). Principal author Joel Brenner was formerly inspector general of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. counterintelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Other contributors include Hal Abelson, David Clark, Shirley Hung, Kenneth Oye, Richard Samuels, John Tirman and Daniel Weitzner.

To determine what a better security environment would look like, the researchers convened a series of workshops aimed at going beyond the day-to-day tactical challenges to look at deep cyber vulnerabilities.