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Napolitano calls for cybersecurity innovation

By Public Affairs

Janet Napolitano

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (Kat Wade photo)

During a visit to the UC Berkeley campus Monday (April 25), U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano addressed some 250 students, faculty and staff about the need for innovations to make cyberspace safe from hacking, spamming and other threats.

Napolitano, speaking at Sibley Auditorium, said government must partner with academia and business to take on this challenge.

In ordinary times, “what we were doing in the homeland security area might be good enough to say we are safe enough,” she said. “But these are not ordinary times.”

Napolitano told students that her cybersecurity department is looking for more tech- and policy-savvy people like themselves.

“We on the public policy side, we kind of know what we don’t know,” she said. “We know we need technology savvy people in the government.”