Feds draw lessons for computer security from Y2K

Federal officials assured Senate lawmakers Thursday that the estimated $40 million being spent on a Y2K Information Coordination Center (ICC) is an investment in the government's future efforts to monitor the nation's computer infrastructure against cyberterrorism threats.

"We must consider whether spending $40 to $50 million dollars for such a brief period is wise," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, at a hearing of the Senate's special Y2K committee. "Congress has a responsibility to make sure that the purpose and scope of the ICC is viable."

White House Y2K czar John Koskinen said efforts to coordinate federal, state, local and private sector emergency communications would help educate officials on how to handle potential future cyber attacks.

"The Y2K problem provides us with an illustration of our reliance on technology," he said. "This is not a one-time only issue. The infrastructure will continually be vulnerable to attack."

Koskinen said he has been working directly with Richard Clarke, the national coordinator for infrastructure protection for the National Security Council (NSC), to develop the ICC. He said the NSC will take lessons learned from the ICC and incorporate them into a broader federal plan to protect the country's technology infrastructure.

Administration security officials have been working since 1998, when President Clinton issued a directive ordering agencies to cooperate with one another and to work with private industry on a plan to ensure the security of critical networks and essential government services.

John Tritak, director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, said there is a "natural relationship" between the ICC and the counter-cyberterrorism efforts his office is working on.

"Maximum value should be extracted from the ICC experience," he said. "Certain Y2K efforts have taught us a lot about our risks."

Koskinen said the ICC will gather information from global posts, as well as from major industry sectors within the United States, and post big-picture analysis of the Y2K situation on a regular basis starting Dec. 30. He emphasized that the ICC is not a decision-making body, and will not be providing technical assistance to "reconstitute" computer systems that crash. Federal agencies in charge of individual economic sectors will provide hands-on support, as well as industry associations. In areas of overlap, the NSC and State Department will have teams to help fix the problem.

"The ICC will be focused on how to best share information on the status of system operations to increase the likelihood that expert assistance is available to those who are in need and requesting help," Koskinen said.

Full-scale tests of the ICC will begin in November, Koskinen said, with the center starting 24-hour operations on Dec. 30. It will be active through the first two weeks of January and scale back to with a small core staff working through June.