Feds Building Internet Monitoring Center

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 10:48:14 -0700 (MST)
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP: Feds Building Internet Monitoring Center


Feds Building Internet Monitoring Center

By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, January 31, 2003; 12:00 AM

The Bush administration is quietly assembling an Internet-wide monitoring
center to detect and respond to attacks on vital information systems and key
e-commerce sites.

The center, which has been in development for the past 15 months, is a key
piece of the White House's national cybersecurity strategy and represents a
major leap in the federal government's effort to achieve real-time tracking
of
the Internet's health.

The "Global Early Warning Information System," (GEWIS, pronounced
"gee-whiz")
is being built by the National Communications System (NCS), a Defense agency
established in 1962 to ensure that the government has access to adequate
communications systems during national emergencies. It is unrelated to the
Total Information Awareness program, a planned Defense Department program
that
would actively mine databases worldwide to uncover terrorist and other
threats.

The NCS started building the GEWIS system shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, when it began asking major Internet and
telecommunications
providers to sell "real-time" data about the status of their networks, said
NCS Deputy Manager Brent Greene.

The NCS has spent an undisclosed sum of money to buy data from the members
of
the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications, an NCS information
sharing group established during the Clinton administration that includes
some
the largest telecom and Internet service providers in the world, including
WorldCom, Verizon, Sprint, SBC Communications, Qwest and BellSouth.

Greene said the agency now receives data from several key telecom and
Internet
service providers, and in the next two months hopes to launch the first
stage
of its pilot project, which will combine the information into a graphical
view
of the health of the Internet.

The White House believes the monitoring center is necessary because no
single
entity in the government or private sector has more than a limited view of
the
global communications network.

"Nowhere do you see everything that is happening on the Internet," said
White
House cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke at a recent public appearance in
Washington. "Nowhere do you see the big board."

With Clarke's help, the NCS secured $5 million in 2002 for the GEWIS
program.

The NCS is co-managed by the White House and the head of the Defense
Information Systems Agency, which is responsible for guarding the
communications infrastructures of the military and intelligence communities.
On March 1, the NCS will be folded into the Department of Homeland Security,
along with four other federal cybersecurity divisions.

More at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3409-2003Jan30?language=printer


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