Federal agencies should prioritize their information security requirements to ensure mission-critical operations are protected first, and delineate between “that which is aggravating and that which is truly dangerous,” the Homeland Security Department’s cyber chief Greg Schaffer said during a conference on Tuesday.

Cyberattacks are growing far more sophisticated, in part because they’re more difficult to detect, said Schaffer, who was appointed assistant secretary of DHS’ Office of Cybersecurity and Communications in June. Schaffer and Dave DeWalt, chief executive officer of security vendor McAfee, spoke Tuesday morning at the GFirst conference in Atlanta hosted by the department’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. (NextGov)