White House: Hill slow to fund security

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0717/web-podesta-07-18-00.asp

BY Diane Frank
07/18/2000

The White House Monday called for Congress to "pick up the pace" on
funding information security initiatives within government in the
fiscal 2001 budget, while putting forward legislation to help law
enforcement track and prosecute cybercriminals.

In a speech at the National Press Club, White House Chief of Staff
John Podesta criticized congressional appropriators for not funding
the security initiatives proposed by President Clinton in January in
the National Plan for Information Systems Protection.

"Good security needs to be updated constantly, and it costs money,"
Podesta said.

In the plan and the fiscal 2001 budget, Clinton proposed more than $90
million for several new cybersecurity initiatives, including the
Federal Intrusion Detection Network (FIDNet), which would monitor
federal systems for cyberattacks; the security research and
development Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection; the
Federal Cyber Service training and recruitment program; and the Expert
Review Team to help federal agencies review their security plans.

Each of those initiatives is under a different agency and in a
different appropriations bill. So far, none of them have made it
through the appropriations committees.

"Unfortunately, to date, the Congress still refuses to appropriate one
dime to put these initiatives in place," Podesta said. "Its time they
picked up the pace and provided the protections that are essential to
Americas cybersecurity."

Podesta also unveiled four new pieces of legislation that Clinton will
send to Congress to expand on bills already going through committees.
Key points of the legislation include:

     * Amending hardware-specific wiretap statutes to apply equal
       standards to both hardware and software surveillance.

     * Equalizing the legal standards that apply to law enforcements
       access to e-mails, telephone calls and cable services

     * Updating the "trap and trace" laws that allow law enforcement
       to track the path of cybercriminals on the Internet.

     * Updating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to treat multiple
       small attacks as a single attack and eliminate mandatory
       jail time for less-serious attacks.

The administration is still looking at possible uses for the Computer
Electronic Security Act (CESA), which Clinton proposed last year to
balance the loosening encryption export controls with the needs of law
enforcement and national security, Podesta said. But for now, the new
proposed legislation will stand in to handle the law enforcement
issues, he said.

"We hope that well have a fair hearing on them and we believe that if
we work together [with Congress], then we can bridge the gaps between
the members currently considering this on the Senate Judiciary
committee by balancing privacy with the needs of law enforcement and
that we can have some legislation enacted this year," Podesta said.

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