[iwar] [fc:Report.urges.states.to.organize.against.cyberterror]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-07-27 10:30:32

Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Critics.Blast.IT.Loophole.in.Homeland.Security.Plan]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Cybersecurity.confusion.hampers.government]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

Message-Id: <200207271730.g6RHUWe31153@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 10:30:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Report.urges.states.to.organize.against.cyberterror]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Report urges states to organize against cyberterror

By DAN VERTON 
JULY 23, 2002

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)
today issued a report urging government leaders in all 50 states to set
aside political differences and make cybersecurity and
critical-infrastructure protection a top priority. 

The report (download PDF), "Public-Sector Information Security: A Call
to Action for Public-Sector CIOs," was funded by the Arlington,
Va.-based PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of
Government and builds upon lessons learned during a conference on
emerging cyberthreats attended by state officials in November. 

"Government leaders must set aside the federated cultures that foster
agency autonomy and 'my turf' thinking," wrote Don Heiman, the author of
the report and the former CIO of the state of Kansas.  "More than
anything else, this report is a call to action, written with a sense of
urgency and dedicated to the victims and families of the September 11th
attacks on America."

The report specifically outlines 10 recommendations for state government
officials that the NASCIO and experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers said
lay the foundation for state governments to begin organizing and
planning for a future nationwide information-sharing network for
first-responders and cybersecurity officials. 

However, one of the key recommendations calls for the states and the
federal government to fund the establishment of an interstate
information-sharing and analysis center (ISAC) similar to the series of
private-sector ISACs established by the federal government to detect and
warn of significant cyberthreats.  According to the report, "It is very
common for small- and medium-sized states to see 4,500 intrusion
attempts per week." But many state governments lack both the money to
establish their own ISACS and the personnel with the IT security
expertise to properly defend against such cyberattacks. 

Interstate ISACs "could provide these skills and aggregate state
incident data to support national strategic cybersecurity planning," the
report states. 

That's one of the highlights of the report's conclusions, said Richard
Webb, managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers' digital tech practice
and the former CIO of the state of North Carolina.  However, before a
national information-sharing and analysis architecture can be put in
place -- something that officials from the President's Critical
Infrastructure Protection Board have called upon the states to assist
with -- the states have to agree on a common road map, said Webb. 

"The 50 states are all organized in different ways," said Webb.  "This
puts a framework in place so that we can open up information-sharing
across public boundaries.  Everybody's a player in this.  But this is a
first step to put together a framework for state and local governments
to organize."

The report also urges state legislators to pass laws that would protect
sensitive state government information that is shared across state
boundaries with other state governments, the federal government and the
private sector from inadvertent disclosure. 

"Sharing will not occur unless there is an assurance of confidentiality
against state open records/sunshine laws and the federal Freedom of
Information Act," the report concludes.  "Interstate sharing has been
limited because states fear that their security activities could become
a part of another state's open records when information is shared across
state boundary lines or with local or federal units of government."

A similar proposal to amend the Freedom of Information Act has been tied
up in Congress for more than a year. 

Source: Computerworld

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Will You Find True Love?
Will You Meet the One?
Free Love Reading by phone!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/7dY7FD/R_ZEAA/Ey.GAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Critics.Blast.IT.Loophole.in.Homeland.Security.Plan]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Cybersecurity.confusion.hampers.government]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2002-10-01 06:44:31 PDT