U.S. should fund R&D for secure Internet protocols, Clarke says

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Government Computer News
U.S. should fund R&D for secure Internet protocols, Clarke says
By William Jackson

Presidential cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke today renewed his call
for government funding to support R&D for more secure Internet protocols.

Clarke told reporters that security and reliability of the basic protocols
underlying the Internet have not received enough attention because no one
has a proprietary interest in them.

"We have begun to think about the tragedy of the commons," the economic
theory that no one takes responsibility for property that is held in
common, he said. "The commons of cyberspace are the protocols. The question
is, what is the role of the U.S. government in regard to this?"

The draft National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, released in September by
the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, headed by Clarke,
says the role should be financial support. The strategy recommends funding
in fiscal 2004 for research on security for intrusion detection,
applications and protocols.

The challenges of creating secure versions of basic Internet components
such as the Domain Name System, which came under attack in October, and the
Border Gateway Protocol, have been discussed for years. "But nothing much
has happened," Clarke said, because nobody is funding the work.

Clarke said he has been in talks with the security group of the Internet
Engineering Task Force. Though wary of government control, IETF agrees that
federal money would help the task of developing secure protocols and
creating testbeds to test them.

Although funding would depend on Congress, which has yet to pass most of
the 2003 budget, Clarke was optimistic that money would be available.

"We're probably talking about a few million a year to support IETF," he
said.

Clarke met with representatives of the European Commission in Brussels this
week. He said the commission expects to form a European Network Security
Agency next year to deal with similar matters.
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