Subject: InternetWeek Newsletter - December 16, 1998
U.S. Government Report Exposes Computer Security Threat
Washington, D.C. -- Computer hackers using software widely
available on the World Wide Web could bring down the nation's
electrical power grid and military command and control systems,
according to a U.S. government report released today.
A complete overhaul of U.S. national security agencies and
policies is needed to avert cyber attacks that could cripple the
nation's and Corporate America's critical infrastructure, the
report states.
The report, entitled, "CyberCrime, CyberTerrorism, and
CyberWarfare: Averting an Electronic Waterloo," recommends several
procedures U.S. policy makers can implement to defend the nation's
critical infrastructures from information warfare. "Averting an
Electronic Waterloo" is the result of a three-year effort by the
Center For Strategic and International Studies' Global Organized
Crime project, chaired by William Webster, former FBI and CIA
director.
To illustrate how vulnerable the U.S. defense and national
security community is to an information attack, the report notes
the results of a recent Joint Chief of Staff exercise code-named
"Eligible Receiver." A group of security experts, known as a "red
team," used software widely available from hacker Web sites to
prove that they could disable major portions of the U.S. electric
power grid and deny computer services to the entire Pacific
military command and control system through an information warfare
attack.
"It's unsettling to know that you could be experiencing an attack
from almost any quarter and not know when it started or where its
coming from," said Senator Charles Robb (D-Va.), a member of the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"CyberCrime looks at the problem of cyber attacks on the U.S.
infrastructure -- a serious problem which, in the opinion of most
[experts], has not been adequately addressed," Webster said.
A broad-based security policy must address the total impact of the
information revolution on national security, but will not be
effective unless government works closely with private
corporations -- which are often on the front lines of cyber
attacks, the report states.
Robb said the U.S. should prepare now and not wait for a
catastrophe to occur. In fact there are already indications that
about 20 foreign nations have already successfully penetrated U.S.
information systems, according to the report.
CSIS task force recommends the development of a national security
policy for the Information Revolution. The president should issue
an executive order that requires a top-down review of all the
organizations responsible for information security and CyberCrime.
CSIS also recommends that the government support private-sector
efforts to improve information security such as the Information
Systems Security Board proposed by the telecommunications
industry. ISSB would be a private sector-organized group which
would evaluate and endorse information security standards.
In the past the government has lead the private sector. But with
the growing cyber threat, that can't continue to happen. "The
private sector cannot sit back and wait for government to lead,"
Robb said. By Rutrell Yasin
http://www.internetwk.com/news1298/news121598-4.htm