White House sets up systems protection plan
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The Clinton administration by year's end will complete its plan for protecting the nation's infrastructures from cyberattack, administration officials said. Clinton last month issued Presidential Decision Directive 63, which called for a national plan for infrastructure protection. The directive established the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, which calls for interim security capability by 2000 and full infrastructure security in five years.
The Clinton administration by years end will complete its plan for protecting the
nations infrastructures from cyberattack, administration officials said.
Clinton last month issued Presidential Decision Directive 63, which called for a
national plan for infrastructure protection. The directive established the Critical
Infrastructure Protection Program, which calls for interim security capability by 2000 and
full infrastructure security in five years.
Ciao, hackers
The Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, under the aegis of the Commerce
Department, will serve as the programs planning office. Richard Clark, the newly
appointed national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and
counterterrorism, will run the program.
Jeffrey Hunker, director of the assurance office, recently described a possible
cyberattack at a joint hearing of the House National Security subcommittees on Military
Procurement and Military R&D.
"One person with a computer, a modem and a telephone line anywhere in the world
can potentially break into sensitive government files, shut down an airports air
traffic control system or cause a power outage in an entire region," Hunker said.
The assurance office will write protection plans for each critical infrastructure
sector, including telecommunications, banking and finance, energy, transportation and
essential government services. Then a national umbrella plan will incorporate the sector
plans.
The national infrastructure protection plan will include at least six elements:
The Presidents Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection urged the
administration to protect the nations information systems, increase cooperation
between the public and private sectors and create a federal monitoring center.
Attorney General Janet Reno, who sits on the commissions steering committee,
earlier this year announced the establishment of the National Information Protection
Center. The centers goal is to provide real-time intrusion detection.
The center will also gather vulnerability data and disseminate analyses and warnings to
the government and industry. The center has set up shop at the FBIs J. Edgar Hoover
Building headquarters.
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