Subscribe to the Free Print Edition!
Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > 02/14/03 web stories

Industry will work with government on cyberspace plan

By Wilson P. Dizard III and William Jackson, GCN Staff

The White House today unveiled its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, detailing dozens of steps for industry and government to take to fend off and recover from assaults on the nation’s critical systems.

The plan’s five priorities are:

  • A national cyberspace security response system
  • A threat and vulnerability reduction program
  • A security awareness and training program
  • A plan to secure governments’ cyberspace
  • An approach to intelligence agency and international cybersecurity.


    • Seeded throughout were dozens of recommendations to the private sector to raise its awareness of threats, train its systems employees, evaluate the security of applications and form ties with the government for joint action.

    The plan also called for specific federal actions, the first of which is to set up a 24-hour, seven-day contact point in the Homeland Security Department for federal interactions with industry and other partners. And it called for exercises to evaluate the impact of cyberattacks and pinpoint weaknesses for correction.

    At a DHS briefing today, Howard Schmidt, acting director of the White House’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, said, "We have had a number of exercises across the Pentagon and in civilian agencies."

    He said agencies have begun to simulate cyberattacks with state and local governments as well.

    The plan put the Justice Department and other agencies in charge of improving information sharing, investigative tools and cybercrime research. It said the General Services Administration and DHS will continue to cooperate on a federal software patch clearinghouse and work with the private sector on a similar clearinghouse.

    Federal agencies were told to tighten security measures, expand their use of security assessment tools and install applications to check continuously for unauthorized network connections. The plan said the government will also review the National Information Assurance Partnership to assess whether it is properly dealing with security flaws in commercial software.

    It further said the government will consider licensing or certifying private security service providers for minimum capabilities, "including the extent to which they are adequately independent." Schmidt said such providers need to be shown as trustworthy.

    More news on related topics: Homeland Security, IT Security



    GCN Popup