Bush administration creates computer security panel

The Bush administration's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board is assembling a committee to focus on information-systems security in the executive branch and formalizing the panel's responsibilities. The move is aimed at helping the board and the White House Office of Homeland Security focus on steps necessary to protect the government's computer systems.

The committee will consist of members from federal agencies that have a role in security and will be chaired by the Office of Management and Budget.

The administration's e-government chief, Mark Forman, told a House subcommittee on Wednesday that most of the committee's work will be performed by individual issue groups that will be dissolved once their work is completed.

The National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) is one agency that will be added to the committee "soon," NIST Director Arden Bement said during the hearing.