FW: [ISN] Security groups call for crisis coordination center

[Howell, Paul]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-isn@attrition.org [mailto:owner-isn@attrition.org] On Behalf Of
InfoSec News
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 6:42 AM
To: isn@attrition.org
Subject: [ISN] Security groups call for crisis coordination center 


http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0315/web-cybersec-03-18-04.asp

By Florence Olsen 
March 18, 2004

Two national task forces organized by the National Cyber Security
Partnership called for a public awareness campaign, an early warning contact
network and a national crisis coordination center to improve the nation's
responses to cyber vulnerabilities, threats and incidents.

Created last December at the National Cyber Security Summit, the task forces
released their recommendations today for improving the nation's
cybersecurity defenses. The National Cyber Security Partnership was formed
to bring together private organizations and government agencies.

No price tag was attached to the task forces' suggestions, but establishing
a national crisis coordination center by 2006 most likely would require
legislation or an executive order. Guy Copeland, who led the Early Warning
Task Force, said the center would coordinate threat analyses, warnings,
research and responses for critical infrastructure-sector experts and
federal, state and local officials.  
Copeland is vice president of information infrastructure advisory programs
for Computer Sciences Corp.'s federal-sector business.

The center would "bridge some cultural barriers that have hampered a true
partnership in counterterrorism and cybersecurity," the task force report
said.

The early warning contact network, to be set up as early as December, would
be a multichannel network housed and administered by the Homeland Security
Department's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.  
Communication would occur primarily via the Internet, although task force
leaders recommended having a backup means of communicating if the Internet
goes down.

Other recommendations of the task forces would be relatively inexpensive and
easy to achieve. The Common Sense Guide to Cyber Security for Small
Businesses, prepared by the Internet Security Alliance, is already available
and free for downloading. The Awareness and Outreach Task Force has as one
of its initial goals to reach 50 million households.

Reaching home users will be accomplished largely through the cooperation of
Internet service providers who would keep their customers informed of
cybersecurity threats and attacks, task force leaders said.

The task force also recommended reaching corporation executives through a
series of regional homeland security forums with DHS officials, beginning in
September, and through a direct-mail campaign, to begin in July. Both the
forums and the mailings would emphasize the role of senior corporate
executives in securing cyberspace.

As a strategy to extend cybersecurity awareness to state and local
governments, the outreach task force recommended holding DHS forums with
governors and mayors, similar to the forums that will be held with industry
leaders.

The cybersecurity partnership, headed by the Business Software Alliance; the
Information Technology Association of America; TechNet, a chief executive
officers group; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, includes academic,
corporate, government and industry cybersecurity experts.



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo@attrition.org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the
BODY of the mail.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from netsec, send mail to majordomo@merit.edu
with a body consisting of the words "unsubscribe netsec" --
without the quotes. For more help, send a message to majordomo@merit.edu
with the word "help" as the body.
------------------------------------------------------------------------