White House releases new infrastructure security directive

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,88389,00.html

By Dan Verton 
DECEMBER 18, 2003
COMPUTERWORLD

WASHINGTON -- The White House yesterday released the long-awaited
rewrite of a 1998 document that established critical-infrastructure
protection, including cybersecurity, as a core policy of the U.S.  
government. But two prominent senators from opposite sides of the
political aisle disagree on the new policy's direction.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7 (HSPD-7) replaced
Presidential Decision Directive-63, signed on May 22, 1998, by
then-President Bill Clinton, as the main document outlining the
public/private partnership needed to eliminate major vulnerabilities
to the nation's critical physical and cyberinfrastructures.

Computerworld first revealed the pending rewrite on Nov. 7 
(see story) [1]. 

The new document is titled "Critical Infrastructure Identification,
Prioritization and Protection." It calls for a concerted
public/private effort to identify and catalog the nation's most
critical infrastructure facilities and networks using geospatial
imaging systems and requests detailed modeling and simulation studies
to learn more about the potential effects of terrorist attacks against
these infrastructures.

The HSPD-7 gives the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  
another year to "outline national goals, objectives, milestones, and
key initiatives," even though a cybersecurity plan released in
February envisioned that such work would be done much sooner.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine)  
praised the administration for the directive. "In the post-9/11 world,
we cannot afford weak links in our critical infrastructure protection
or gaps in our support for local first responders," she said.

But presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), the
ranking Democrat on the committee, lambasted Bush for allowing the DHS
to take more time to put together yet another plan.

"This nation has been desperately in need of leadership to protect its
critical infrastructure from terrorist attack," said Lieberman. But
"the president has given Secretary Ridge yet another year to develop a
'plan' to develop a 'strategy' to identify, prioritize and protect key
critical infrastructures," he added.

"This would almost be laughable were it not such a devastating failure
for our country," Lieberman said. "The administration has repeatedly
assured us it was at work on such plans and strategies. Now, we
discover the administration has been running in place, leaving us no
closer to having meaningful protections for the vital systems and
assets the country depends upon each day."

[1] http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,86956,00.html
 


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