Two Virginia Universities To Join Forces Against Cybercrime

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176552.html

By Brian Krebs, Washtech
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
13 May 2002, 8:25 PM CST
 
Two Virginia schools on Tuesday will launch a $6.5 million project to
help sort out the myriad legal, technical and policy challenges
involved in steeling the nation's most vital computer systems against
cyber-attacks.

The Critical Infrastructure Protection Project - to be housed at the
George Mason School of Law in Arlington - is a collaborative effort
between GMU's National Center for Technology and Law and researchers
and academicians at James Madison University.
 
The project will be led by John A. McCarthy, a former member of a
Clinton administration team that facilitated government and
private-sector collaboration in preparing key computer systems for the
Y2K conversion.

Among the more pressing problems the new center will tackle are legal
issues that have stymied plans to establish more fluid and open
information-sharing networks between the public and private sector.

Tech companies have indicated they would be more willing to share
information with the government if they could be assured that data
would not be leaked to the public through the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA).

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are pushing legislation that
would guarantee such protections.

But consumer and privacy watchdog groups say FOIA case law adequately
protects any of the information concerning cyber-security issues that
should legitimately be withheld from the public. Rather, they argue,
the legislation could end up exempting companies from legal liability
for security lapses.

"The information-sharing plan has been on the table for six years and
we still haven't come up with a workable solutions because of legal
obstacles," McCarthy said. "We hope that by putting our third-party
hat on we'll be able to bring together the right constituencies to
broker lasting and useful solutions to long-term problems."

The center also plans to offer congressional testimony and become the
central clearinghouse for data and research on cybersecurity and
critical infrastructure protection.

"We want to become the center that researchers and government leaders
can come to that centralizes a lot of data and findings on
cybersecurity," McCarthy said. "Right now, that data is all over the
map, and we're planning to bring that together in one place."

In addition, the group plans to work with other schools to coordinate
research and development on cyberterrorism issues.

The program is being paid for through the National Institute for
Standards and Technology (NIST), an arm of the U.S. Department of
Commerce.

The $6.5 million was allocated under the FY2002 Commerce-State-Justice
appropriations bill, which funds the center for the next two years.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on
Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary, and author of the original
funding measure, is looking to give the center more money through the
appropriations process, an aide said.



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