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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] U.S. to Beef Up Cyber Defenses
From:       William Knowles <wk () C4I ! ORG>
Date:       2000-04-19 3:48:13
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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35742,00.html

WASHINGTON [4.18.2000] - Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned
corporate chiefs Tuesday that protecting their data from cyber threats
was about to become a top priority in the United States.

He said he had no doubt that in 10 years information security would be
"an absolutely central priority in terms of management of business
risk."

"The only question is whether we will move to that in a smooth way or
whether there will have been four or five spectacular failures which
will have woken everybody up and gotten us to that point," Summers
said.

He made his comments at a daylong White House conference aimed at
spurring corporate attention to, and spending on, the threat of
computer assaults. Attending the conference, the first in a six-part
regional series, were experts on corporate governance, auditors, and
senior executives.

Commerce Secretary William Daley told the session that the Internet
era marked "the first time in American history the federal government
alone cannot protect our infrastructure."

"We can't hire a police force big enough to protect all of industry's
key information assets," he said. "Nor would you want us to."

Instead, the Clinton administration has been pushing industry groups
to share more data on network vulnerabilities both among themselves
and with law enforcement and intelligence officials led by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. Summers cited the model of a center set up by
21 U.S. financial services firms last October.

The administration has stepped up its public expressions of concern
since an assault in February disrupted online access for hours to such
popular Web sites as Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay, E-Trade, and others.

Possible threats range from youthful hackers and criminals to
guerrilla groups. The administration also has frequently cited
"information warfare" tactics that it says are under study by China,
Russia, and other countries.

John Podesta, President Clinton's chief of staff, told the conference
that building safer computer security practices was critical both to
U.S. business and national security.

"And we are most successful when we work together as partners," he
said.

Richard Clarke, the White House National Security Council staff
coordinator for infrastructure protection and counterterrorism, said
the government was willing to share intelligence on cyber threats with
industry groups "if we can establish classified" channels for handling
it.

But he said federal authorities were looking to the private sector to
come up with information-security standards that might be required,
for instance, to meet auditing guidelines or to get insurance.

In a report released at the conference, the Institute of Internal
Auditors, which claims 70,000 members worldwide, said corporate
directors had a responsibility to practice "due care" in overseeing
information security practices.

"Any board that fails to address information security does so at the
peril of the organization and itself," the Altamonte Springs,
Florida-based professional group said.


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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