The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is considering an Internet security bill. Cosponsored by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the bill addresses potential threats to critical private-sector systems that could literally shut down our way of life, Rockefeller said.
“Our enemies are real, they are sophisticated, they are determined, and they will not rest,” so “we must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs,” he added.
Jack Bauer’s Nightmare
Cyber security threats like those tackled on the TV series 24 by Agent Jack Bauer must seem over the top to some U.S. consumers, especially those who don’t have PC security software. But Snowe thinks the vulnerability of critical U.S. infrastructure components — including banking, utilities, transportation and telecommunications — is “one of the most urgent national-security problems facing our country today.”
Her concerns were recently echoed by Dennis Blair, U.S. director of national intelligence. Blair reminded reporters last week how the infrastructures of the breakaway Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia and Georgia were crippled by cyber attacks from Russia.
“I don’t think the United States is at risk” right now because “we’re too big, we’re too complex, and we are working on the defenses,” Blair said. “But as you look out to the future, unless we work hard on this we could be very vulnerable.”
He added that it’s difficult to know whether the attacks from Russia were government-sponsored or from other groups. “It takes a lot of manpower and intensive effort to sort that out because of the ability of the attack originators to go through multiple IPs and ISPs along the way,” he said.
“We’re working hard on being able to do that quicker and more accurately,” Blair said. “It’s a high priority, and we’re not where we want to be yet.”
Target,…