USA on Feds Cyberteam

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   USA Today, June 5, 1996, p. 1. 
 
 
   Feds ready anti-terror cyberteam 
 
   By M.J. Zuckerman 
 
 
   The Clinton administration, citing the threat of electronic 
   terrorist attacks, is taking steps to secure cyberspace. 
 
   The administration is expected to announce later this month 
   formation of: 
 
   + An emergency response task force, directed by the FBI and 
   based in the Justice Department, to manage any terrorist 
   incident involving an attack in cyberspace. 
 
   The Cyber Security Assurance Group would funcaon as both an 
   emergency response team and investigative body. It will 
   respond to any collapse of the National Information 
   Infrastructure -- the nation's vital computer systems such 
   as banking, transportation and telecommunications. 
 
   "The threat is there, it's very real," says CIA General 
   Counsel Jeffrey Smith. "If we have a Unabomber who decides 
   to launch an attack with a PC instead of a bomb, (there 
   could be) a great deal of damage." 
 
   + A commission, dominated by national security 
   representatives and chaired by a private sector person, to 
   deliver within 12 months a national policy on cyberspace 
   security. 
 
   The commission faces difficulty in balancing government 
   inter-agency turf battles as well as dealing with industry 
   and the private sector, which oppose Internet regulation. 
 
   "This is one of the toughest issues government faces 
   today," says Smith. 
 
   The initiatives have emerged from an unprecedented, closely 
   guarded series of meeangs held in recent months between 
   leading administration officials from law enforcement, 
   national security and defense. 
 
   Attorney General Janet Reno, acting under a classified 
   presidential directive issued late last year in response to 
   the Oklahoma City bombing, chairs the panel. 
 
   It includes the directors of the CIA and FBI along with 
   Cabinet secretaries from Treasury, Commerce, Transportation 
   and Energy. 
 
   Today, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 
   holds the second in a series of hearings examining 
   cyberspace security and threats to information systems. 
 
   The panel's minority staff is expected to endorse 
   administration proposals to clearly draw national policy on 
   information security but calls for a more ambitious 
   emergency response effort by government. 
 
   [End] 
 
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   To see adjoining UT article (9 kb),  
    
   "Post-Cold War hysteria or a national threat?" 
 
      http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/hysteria.txt