[infowar.de] mehr zu Homeland-Security-Reorganisation und Cybersecurity

[Ralf Bendrath <bendrath -! - zedat - fu-berlin - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,71903,00.html

homeland security revamp to help cybersecurity

By PATRICK THIBODEAU 
JUNE 10, 2002

RESTON, Va. -- White House cybersecurity chief Richard Clarke said
today that a plan to reshuffle the federal government's cybercrime
agencies into a new cabinet level homeland security department will
improve federal coordination with the private sector.

"It will concentrate our forces, it will concentrate the skilled staff
that we have," said Clarke, "and will ensure better cooperation and
better coordination both within the government and the private
sector."

In a proposal outlined by President Bush late last week, the new
department would include the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection
Center and the U.S. Commerce Department's Critical Infrastructure
Assurance Office. Both agencies work extensively with the private
sector.

Clarke, speaking here at the Networked Economy Summit sponsored by
George Mason University, also warned that dangers posed by worms,
viruses and system intrusions are as urgent as ever -- and on the
rise.

"Digital Pearl Harbors are happening every day, they are happening to
companies all across the country," he said. According to Clarke, such
cyberincidents cost the economy $15 billion last year.

Clarke and other federal officials have been holding a series of
meetings around the country to raise awareness and gather information
for a planned national strategy due out by mid-September. That
strategy, which is being developed with the help of industries
representing critical sectors such as finance, energy and
transportation, is intended to map out a plan for improving security
protection.

But the government awareness campaign has also been "a little dirty,"  
Clarke told his audience, many of whom work for IT companies in
Northern Virginia.

In particular, federal officials have been going to private sector
companies and telling them to pressure vendors to improve security
with this message: "Why aren't you using security offerings as a
discriminator among the people from whom you buy?"

Clarke said he has also been meeting with insurance companies about
writing cybersecurity insurance for firms that meet certain criteria.

A key goal is improving the security of federal agencies, which have
frequently been found to be lacking by the congressional watchdog
agency, the U.S. General Accounting Office.

In that regard, the Bush administration's proposed budget for next
year includes $5 billion in new funding to improve security at federal
agencies. Clarke said the private sector won't take the federal
government seriously as long as the government itself has problems.

This was good news for the vendors at the conference.

"There is a tremendous opportunity for private sector involvement in
homeland security areas," said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), who predicted
"billions of dollars" of new federal IT spending on homeland-related
security.

The bulk of this new spending "is not going to new federal employee
manpower, but is going to contractors, innovators, information
technology companies," said Davis.

The proposed homeland office reorganization won the endorsement of one
vendor, Jack London, chairman and CEO of CACI, a Northern
Virginia-based IT firm. He said it will allow the government to
produce "a single data picture of threats against our homeland."

But one technology effort that "should command early focus" is
development of interoperable identification control systems that would
allow federal agencies to work with law enforcement, as well as the
private sector, to correlate potential terrorist activity and threats.

Virginia's economy relies heavily on the tech sector, which employs
about 325,000 people in the state. It is also home to numerous
military bases and network hubs that handle Internet traffic.

"Virginia is a target-rich state," said the state's governor, Mark
Warner. "Literally, half of the Internet traffic in the world flows
through Northern Virginia," he said. "A disruption to that traffic
could have worldwide implications."

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