"Quite frankly, I could argue that among all the agencies, they may be assigned the responsibility; I'm not quite confident that they have the breadth and depth of experience to oversee what the rest of the federal government is doing," Ridge says in an interview with Information Security Media Group. "Having said that, I think they can be a focal point for collaboration among the various agencies."

In the interview, Ridge discusses the:

Critical need for the government and industry to share cyberthreat information; Bipartisan nature of the new leaders of the Senate and House Homeland Security committees; Prospects for passage of cybersecurity legislation in the just-convene 113th Congress.

Ridge recently was named chairman of the advisory board of anti-malware startup TaaSERA. He also chairs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's National Security Task Force.