[44599] in North American Network Operators' Group
Federal plans for Internet simulation and assessment
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fred Heutte)
Tue Dec 4 22:22:20 2001
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From: Fred Heutte <aoxomoxoa@sunlightdata.com>
To: <nanog@merit.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 19:27:20 GMT
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Declan McCullogh has a number of interesting references in his
current Politech note. Excerpts are shown below. The concern=
for
improved security and resilience is commendable, the immediate=
focus
on vendors cramming down patches on users is, erm, debatable.
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02875.html
--------
As part of its efforts to beef up homeland security, the federal=
government
will set up a national center for infrastructure simulation and=
analysis in
January, said Richard Clarke, chairman of President Bush (news -=
web
sites)'s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.
``The center will create, if you will, an acupuncture map of the=
country,
so that if there is a fire in a railroad tunnel in Baltimore, we=
know the
Internet slows down in Chicago,'' Clarke told a gathering of=
high-tech
executives at the Business Software Alliance's first Global Tech=
Summit
..
Clarke also appealed to the private sector, which controls the=
vast
majority of the Internet's infrastructure, to beef up its=
security
practices as well.
``We need to decide that IT security functionality will be built=
into what
we do. It's not an afterthought anymore,'' he said.
Software products should be shipped with security settings at=
their highest
level, he said, and high-speed Internet providers should require=
individual
users to install ''firewalls'' to protect against damaging=
viruses.
Software companies should not just make ``patches'' available to=
fix
vulnerabilities in their products, but automatically update=
users' software
for them, he said.
``It's not beyond the wit of this industry to figure out a way of=
forcing
down these patches,'' he said.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011204/wr/tech_security_dc_1.ht=
ml
