Cybersecurity chief assesses progress
The White House's cybersecurity chief on Wednesday assessed the first 90 days of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, listing its top accomplishments.
Richard Clarke, special administrator to the president for cyberspace security, told a hearing convened by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that a national strategy for cybersecurity being developed by a wide range of government, private sector and academic experts is expected for release by early summer.
Schumer said cybersecurity has been "largely overlooked, at least in our public analysis." He said in the past few weeks he has begun reviewing the nation's status on cybersecurity, "and to be honest, the answers are very, very worrisome."
"We need to talk about the risks we face, we need to develop immediate solutions, and that's what I hope we'll begin accomplishing today," Schumer said.
Clarke said the national strategy will be "only the beginning," and will be "live in real time," evolving as necessary to reflect new cyber threats. He also said the budget for cybersecurity was increased by 64 percent. Sustained levels of investment will be needed in the future, he said.
Meetings of leaders, such as Bill Gates of Microsoft, John Chambers of Cisco Systems and Larry Ellison of Oracle have begun in recent weeks and will result in "highly secure" software products, Clarke said. The National Cyberspace Security Alliance, involving those tech leaders and others, is working on how to secure systems, he said.
The administration has cleared bureaucratic channels by moving, hopefully next month, three key offices together. They are the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office of the Commerce Department, the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) of the FBI, and the president's new board.
Also, new scholarships are being offered this year for university students to study information security, with more proposed for next year. The average grant this year is $30,000, Clarke said.
He also cited the GovNet internal government computer network that is being considered. And he said 167 companies have said they could create an airline security network.
Clarke said the United States more likely will be a target of cyberattack since it has become engaged in armed conflict, and he said there is evidence that terrorist groups have been trying to learn ways to commit cyberattacks. He said that even now, many computer systems probably have been penetrated in ways that are not yet known.
Clarke said the government retains the license to respond to any attacks in any way it chooses. He also said individuals and companies should rethink what information they post on Web sites.