With cyberattacks on key American institutions and businesses becoming more common, the National Security Agency (NSA) is launching a major program to detect assaults on the nation’s infrastructure. The program, called Perfect Citizen, will focus in its first phase on the most obvious, biggest holes in security in legacy systems.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Perfect Citizen, funded by a multibillion-dollar federal effort called the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, will install sensors inside selected computer networks to look for unusual activity. At least initially, Perfect Citizen will focus on key parts of the country’s infrastructure, and won’t provide a sensing shield for all networks.
First Phase by Raytheon
NSA, the super-secret U.S. monitoring agency, declined to comment on the report.
The first phase will be conducted by Raytheon, which won a classified contract reportedly worth $100 million. The systems to be monitored include legacy systems that operate in subways, nuclear plants, air traffic control networks, and other complex and critical parts of the infrastructure.
Many of these networks were not originally designed to work with Internet access, which was added later. Some companies may ask for direction on what to do rather than allow NSA to install sensors, as the agency cannot compel businesses to comply.
In recent years, reports of organized cyberattacks on key elements of the U.S. government and business infrastructure have increased. American intelligence officials and others have said that many of the organized attacks appear to be coming from China, Russia and countries that were formerly in the Soviet empire.
Some observers are raising eyebrows over Perfect Citizen, since NSA’s ability to monitor domestic telecommunications traffic without warrants could raise a variety of privacy and constitutional issues.
‘Perfect Citizen Is Big Brother’
The Journal quoted an internal Raytheon e-mail that noted the government feels the need to ensure “the public sector…