In the fall of 1997, the President's Com-mission on Critical Infrastructure Protection concluded that the U.S. infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to attack and that local, state and Federal officials are not prepared to deal with the problem.

In February 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno unveiled plans to establish a new FBI command center to fight "cyber attacks" against the nation's critical computer networks. The $64 million National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) aims to unify existing Federal computer security efforts to investigate penetration of our banking, military, transportation, telecommunications and other critical systems. Attorney General Reno also asked for 75 new FBI agents and 24 assistant U.S. attorneys to handle Internet crime. When fully staffed, the NIPC will employ 125 people at FBI headquarters in Washington and another 300-400 staffers around the country.

Some computer security experts have criticized the Administration's plan for ignoring the responsibility of software manufacturers to produce higher quality, more secure software packages. Furthermore, many of the cyber "attackers" are internationally based, beyond U.S. jurisdiction, and the plan has no initiative for international cooperation. During the Gulf War, for example, a cracker based in the Netherlands managed to break into an American computer system aboard a naval vessel in the Persian Gulf.

At a commencement speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in May 1998, President Clinton announced the appointment of National Security Council aide Richard Clarke as head of the new office on infrastructure protection and counterterrorism. The President also unveiled an initiative devoted exclusively to protecting telecommunications systems, banks, telephone networks, air-traffic control centers and other public and commercial networks. The President noted, "If we fail to take strong action, then terrorists, criminals, and hostile regimes could invade and paralyze these vital systems, disrupting commerce, threatening health, weakening our capacity to function in a crisis."

The plan follows the presidential commission's recommendation to begin creating a broad-ranging partnership between the government and the private sector, and many private companies including IBM, Dell, BellSouth and GTE have agreed to collaborate in developing protection for stock market, banking, utilities and air-traffic systems. The administration envisions the project to be fully operational by the year 2003.

In January 1999, President Clinton called for an investment of $1.46 billion in fiscal year 2000 to defend the nation's critical infrastructure. The proposal called for Research and Development funding to safeguard key computer systems, Intrusion Detection Systems, Information Sharing and Analysis Centers and the recruiting of a Cyber Corps to respond to computer crises.

Next: The Encryption Debate