FBI to lead nation's cyberattack responses

President Barack Obama issued a policy directive Tuesday putting the FBI in charge of cyberattack responses. For businesses, this means the FBI should be in the speed dial if help is needed.

The intent of the directive is to improve management of the U.S. response to "significant" cyberattacks.

Analysts say this action was needed because it was never clear just what agency was taking the lead in response to a cybe attack -- the U.S. Secret Service, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or some other federal agency.

The decision to put the FBI in charge "was essential," said Alan Paller, president of the Sans Technology Institute and director of research. "The FBI is the only non-DoD agency with a very high concentration of ninjas on staff -- people with the advanced forensics skills needed to find out what happened."

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