Oct. 17 Penn Current writeup on Cyber-security townmeeting at Upenn

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Panel mulls guards for Net

BY SANDY SMITH 
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Computer security experts have long known that a few ill-placed lines of
computer code could bring the country to its knees. Since 9/11, protecting
against this threat has gained additional urgency.

A panel of government and industry experts met at the Annenberg Center Oct.
3 to discuss the White House¹s plans to strengthen computer security. Alfred
Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Systems David Farber moderated
the discussion, which drew an audience of about 200 information-technology
professionals and was simulcast over the Internet.

President Judith Rodin, in her remarks opening the meeting, fondly referred
to Farber as ³one of the most influential nerds in the United States.²

Howard A. Schmidt, vice chair of the President¹s Critical Infrastructure
Protection Board, outlined the government¹s information security strategy.
For the average home computer user, he said, the government¹s main goal was
providing education on how to protect computers from malicious attack.

Schmidt stated that there were a number of sites that offered free tools to
check for and fix vulnerabilities.

Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle said only individuals could ³create
a culture of security in this country² much as they now routinely fasten car
seat belts.

Audience member Vasilis Prevelakis, assistant professor of mathematics and
computer science at Drexel, challenged this notion, pointing out that laws
had to be passed and enforced before seat belt use became widespread. He
also criticized efforts to quash laws to hold software companies responsible
for problems arising from sloppy coding, saying, ³A Œlet the market decide¹
approach doesn¹t work when you have one company that has a de facto
monopoly²‹a veiled swipe at Microsoft, which actually led Farber to defend
the company¹s efforts to make its software more attack-proof. Farber had
testified on the side of the U.S. government in its antitrust suit against
Microsoft.

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