Lawmakers: Cyberattacks pose greatest terrorist threat

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1200/121800td.htm

By Liza Porteus
National Journal's Technology Daily
December 18, 2000

Lawmakers on Friday warned that the United States is not prepared for
an attack by terrorists in any form, whether chemical, biological or
nuclear. But cyberterrorism, they added, may pose the largest threat
because it is the most revolutionary.

"It's difficult, if not impossible," for the Defense Department and
the country to keep pace with the technology used to penetrate
national security systems," said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who heads
the Military Research and Development Subcommittee of the House Armed
Services Committee, at a press conference Friday. "Our enemies and our
would-be enemies are working very hard at cyberterrorism.... They're
trying to level the playing field because they know they can't beat us
tank for tank, plane for plane."

Weldon and other lawmakers spoke at a news conference to mark the
release of four new reports on national defense released by the Center
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The reports, part of
the CSIS Homeland Defense Project, cover terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction, cyber threats, missile defenses and policy integration.

With the recent proliferation of computer bugs like the "I Love You"
virus, the "breeding" of computer hackers in countries like Russia and
the arrival of the Next Generation Internetan always-on broadband
connectionthe "Cyber Threats and Information Security" report on cyber
terrorism concluded that there are no "insurance policies" against
cyber intrusions.

The report recommends that the government and the private sector share
more information on vulnerabilities and that the government provide
the private sector with incentives for improving its security.

"As a nation, we have been reluctant to realize or accept that we are
vulnerable to a different form of state-sponsored warfare or terrorism
from small groups that could bring devastating consequences to
America's door step," said Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Roberts met earlier this week with Vice President-elect Dick Cheney
and said he thinks President-elect George W. Bush's administration
"will work very quickly [on this], and I can't think of a better
blueprint" than the CSIS recommendations. Roberts added that he and
other senators plan to schedule hearings on cyberterrorism in January
or February.

On Tuesday, the Gilmore Commission, an advisory panel on
cyberterrorism headed by Virginia GOP Gov. James Gilmore, released the
second of three yearly reports on cyberterrorism and recommended the
creation of an executive-branch office and congressional committees to
oversee ways to combat the threat. The panel's report states that "the
most likely perpetrators of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure
are terrorists and criminal groups rather than nation-states."

Richard Clarke, the national coordinator for security infrastructure
protection and counter-terrorism for the National Security Council,
said in a White House press conference Friday that there is an
increasing problem in the United States of extortion originating
overseas. "The borders that used to protect us against this sort of
international phenomenon are increasingly less significant," he said,
"and particularly in cyberspace there are no borders."

ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".