CHERDAV44
CRITICAL ALERT!! FBI scheme to police Internet
Wed Sep 25 18:14:04 2002
208.152.73.66

It is my guess that this preliminary "Plan to Secure Cyberspace" is designed
to give the public the idea that the larger scheme of things is aimed solely
at protecting their computers from "hackers." But the new head of Homeland
Security, John Gannon, has long had an agenda re: Internet "security," and
Bush has long desired to gag his most persistent and effective critics - the
alternative editors and writers on the internet. Here is the text of an
address by John Ganno to the National Security Telecommunications and
Information Systems Security Comittee in April, 2001. Knowing Bush, the
labels Gannon gives to "cyber threat people" , like "hacktivist,"
"terrorist," "Hackers for hire," " Industrial spies" and "cyber criminals"
will be broadly used to target those most critical of the administration.
Maybe I'm being paranoid, but everything I predicted that seemed paranoid at
the time re: this administration, has come true.
http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/adci_040301.html

CRITICAL ALERT!! FBI finishes first draft of scheme to police Internet
http://www.ds-osac.org/edb/cyber/news/story.cfm?KEY=9096


9/24/02

It took nine months of planning and a profusion of suits and secret service agents to deliver
what has amounted to only a final draft of the United States Government's much-lauded National
Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.

President Bush's special adviser on cyber security, Richard Clarke, FBI Director Robert Mueller,
Secret Service Director Brian Stafford, and a royal flush of bigwigs representing the energy,
transportation and communication industries as well as foreign governments participated in the
highly publicised presentation at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, last week to unveil the
government's plan to secure cyberspace.

The venue, in the heart of Silicon Valley, before an invited audience of tech professionals, was
significant. The government spent nine months vetting the plan with technology executives
from Symantec, Intel and other companies to devise a scheme that calls for shared responsibility
from government, industry, educational institutions and consumers. The 65-page document was
meant to be a final plan but at the last minute the government changed it to a draft and
announced it was putting it online to allow comments and criticism.

The plan, posted at www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/cyberstrategy-draft.pdf , will remain online for
feedback until November 18.

Conference attendees were glowing in their public support of the plan but privately they have
expressed scepticism. Many industry and government people, speaking off-the-record at the
Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas in August, described the plan as having no teeth,
particularly since it made few demands of industry leaders such as Microsoft.

Notably absent from the line of speakers at Stanford was anyone from Microsoft, although
Clarke noted that the company had helped develop the plan, along with other tech companies.

Critics point out that badly written software is the main cause of most problems on the Internet.

The number of software flaws has risen dramatically each year since 1998. During the first six
months of this year alone, 2148 vulnerabilities were reported by the Computer Emergency
Response Team at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Clarke says market forces, rather than legislation, are the best incentives for industry to write
more secure software and patch systems.

What the plan does include is a call on industries to develop standards of best practice. It also
advises ISPs to coordinate with anti-virus and firewall makers to provide users with protective
software and it suggests that public companies "consider" performing independent security
audits of their system.

It calls for universities to establish a 24-hour tech contact so that ISPs and the FBI can
investigate university systems traced to cyber attacks. And it establishes a number of taskforces
to share information.

Most significantly, though, the plan calls for a government marketing campaign, including TV
and radio spots, to educate consumers about the need to secure home computer systems. AOL
announced it will launch a public campaign on how to be a more secure cyber citizen.

"Just say no to hackers" - as some have dubbed the campaign reminiscent of Nancy Reagan's
"Just say no to drugs" campaign from the 1980s - will urge consumers to install and update
antivirus software and firewalls.

Critics of the plan call the focus on consumers helpful but misguided since home users are not
the weakest link in the security chain. That designation falls to corporate users. Lazy or
neglectful companies that fail to properly install security systems, patch vulnerabilities or
educate employees about e-mail attachments and poor passwords are often to blame for cyber
attacks.

While the general feeling among the audience at Stanford was relief to see the government
finally taking steps to secure the Internet, most had a wait-and-see attitude, wondering how the
government and industry will translate all the talk into concrete action.

Copyright 2002 The Age Company Limited
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Congress Urged to Draft a "Will" to Ensure "Continuance of Government"
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=161


The most absurd piece of "evidence" to date?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/sep/24/092409709.html