Ridge calls homeland security a Y2K problem with no deadline

Technology and e-government initiatives will play a critical role in homeland security, White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Thursday.

"You may say homeland security is a Y2K problem that doesn't end Jan. 1 of any given year," Ridge said during a Council for Excellence in Government luncheon in Washington.

President Bush has proposed $38 billion for homeland security initiatives involving emergency response, information sharing and information technology, border and airport security, and bioterrorism. The Office of Management and Budget also is spearheading the effort to execute the president's management agenda, which identified 24 e-government initiatives to increase government efficiency and reduce paperwork. Bush's budget proposal includes $50 billion for the initiative.

Although technology can serve as a "powerful source of good" in activities such as border and aviation security, Ridge said, enemies of the country, such as the al Qaeda terrorist network, also can use it to penetrate U.S. critical infrastructure. Ridge said his job is to build technology defenses into the national security plan that his office is charged with implementing.

"Technology can make us secure, but security must extend to technology," he said, noting that Bush included $4 billion for IT security in his budget, which would be a 60 percent increase over last year's funding.

Ridge said the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board continues to work closely with private industry on ways to protect computer systems and other critical infrastructure. "Only by working together ... can we create a truly comprehensive, national strategy," he said. "I believe technology will be an integral part of that."

Ridge said he learned a great deal about how technology and e-government can secure government functions and make them more efficient while he was governor of Pennsylvania before taking his current position. During his tenure as chief executive of that state, Ridge oversaw the establishment of Justice Net (JNET), a Web-based criminal justice system implemented by KPMG Consulting and linked to FBI databases.

Through channels such as e-mail and newsgroups, secured with digital certificates and other tools, JNET allows police officials to query several agency databases for information on suspected criminals, drivers' licenses, arrest records and more. "I think it can serve as a model for the kinds of things we can do in homeland security," Ridge said.

Officials in seven states thus far have sought information on Pennsylvania's system, state officials recently said. Within hours, the system was deployed to the rural Pennsylvania site where one of the four commercial planes hijacked on Sept. 11 crashed.

The United States can do more to encourage the next generation to better protect IT assets, Ridge said. He said students should be encouraged to follow careers in information security, technology and related fields. Technology security is "a career path I'd like to see the country nurture," he said.

Earlier in the day, the council hosted a meeting with 120 to 150 presidential nominees as part of its 18-month White House-supported project to orient presidential appointees on the five aspects of Bush's management agenda, particularly e-government.