Clarke: Federal Cybersecurity Efforts Subpar

"He is an experienced and insightful observer in this area. When he poses a warning on these lines, I think we should take it seriously," said Spotila, who previously worked with Clarke, former special adviser to the president on cybersecurity.

At a conference last week in Orlando, Fla., Clarke said the U.S. government has been slow to implement its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace and is less capable of protecting the nation's critical infrastructure than it was a year ago. The DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Clarke, now chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, an Arlington, Va.-based IT security consulting firm, stepped down from his federal post earlier this year.

While the United States is paying attention to cybersecurity, it's not doing everything it can to address it, said Mark Amtower, a partner at consultancy Amtower & Co., Ashton, Md.

But Steve Keefe, senior vice president of security solution provider Patriot Technologies, Frederick, Md., said DHS-related budget issues, not a lax attitude, held back federal agencies' security projects last fall; sales have been brisk since spring.

Clarke unveiled last week an alliance of IT firms aimed at securing the nation's infrastructure. Because the government has failed to implement the public-private partnership called for by the national strategy, private companies must together "work on security problems without help from the government," he said.

Dan Foulk, vice president of mainframe services at Cornerstone Systems, a solution provider and alliance firm in Irvine, Calif., said Clarke's remarks about the government's cybersecurity shortcomings surprised him.

The DHS "is a step in the right direction, but it's got a way to go before it's what we all hoped it would be," he said.