The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tuesday said it plans to create a new risk management center dubbed a “cyber hub” that’s intended to protect critical infrastructure from crippling cyberattacks.

The National Risk Management Center is tasked with bolstering coordination between the federal government and private-sector companies that own and operate critical assets and to improve the protection of critical infrastructure from potential threats.

Announced by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (pictured) in a presentation at the agency’s national cybersecurity summit in New York City today, the NRMC is primarily aimed at combating state-sponsored hacking in particular by Russia.

“We are in a crisis mode,” Nielson is quoted as saying. “A category 5 hurricane has been forecast and we must prepare.”

The center’s mission is said to “provide a simple and single point of access to the full range of government activities to mitigate a range of risks, including cybersecurity, across sectors” and will go beyond information sharing by working with the private sector to develop a “collaborative risk management strategy” to secure assets deemed to be critical.

Joseph Kucic, chief security officer at Cavirin Systems Inc., told SiliconANGLE that it’s good the DHS is taking the lead in coordinating public-private partnerships to protect national critical infrastructure.

“In the past, various agencies attempted to address critical infrastructure through single agency initiatives, such as the FBI via InfraGard and the Department of Commerce via NIST,” Kucic said. “Having one coordinated overall lead organization will reinforce our national cybersecurity and there is no better situation than it being part of the DHS.”

The ideal situation, he said, would be for the new hub to define common risk management frameworks and security metrics, unifying the various approaches and tactics so a consistent peer measurement process can be implemented.

“In addition, the true success of this new coordinated effort would be to take an end-to-end approach and cover all areas of cybersecurity (infrastructure, applications, end points, IoT, ICS, data, user identity, and transactions) so we can achieve an overall security posture to protect all Americans,” Kucic added. “For too long, we have operated with piecemeal approaches that have operated in silos at best.”

Photo: dhsgov/Flickr