As U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano opened the National Cyber Security and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), a consolidated 24-hour watch and warning center, state and local officials expressed hope that the center would provide increased coordination in dealing with cyber-security threats.

The center — which opened Oct. 30 — will provide for the co-location of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which leads the public-private partnership involved in protecting the nation’s computer networks, as well as the National Telecommunication Coordination Center and National Cyber Security Center.   

In addition to bringing federal agencies responsible for ensuring cyber-security under one roof, the center will facilitate increased coordination between the private sector and state cyber-security officials. “The goal is to make a kind of a one-stop shop so there is one place that our partners across all levels of government and the private sector can reach out,” said DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

William Pelgrin, director of the New York State Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination and chairman of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), is looking forward to the increased coordination NCCIC will provide. “Hopefully at some point we’ll even have staff deployed to the operational — the joint floor [of the NCCIC],” Pelgrin said

He noted that the center’s efforts will not be duplicative of MS-ISAC and state cyber-security efforts. “[The MS-ISAC is] one component of an overall picture of what’s going on out there from a state and local government perspective. ... We will be part of that component in providing very much of a comprehensive picture,” Pelgrin said.

The ability of NCCIC to provide early warnings should help officials predict scams that historically crop up in the wake of natural disasters and provide actionable steps to mitigate and prevent such attacks. 

NCCIC was set up at the recommendation of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, the Government Accountability Office and a joint industry-government working group, which emphasized the need for collocation and data sharing across all levels of government and the private-sector operators of critical telecommunications and IT infrastructure.