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Bush admin says to name cyber security czar Soon

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http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060913:MTFH22623_2...



WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The Bush administration promised on Wednesday to name a cyber security czar "very soon" to help prevent catastrophic attacks that could cripple the U.S. economy, filling a job that has been vacant since it was created one year ago.

Democrats have criticized the administration for taking too long to hire an assistant secretary for cyber security at the Department of Homeland Security at a time when viruses, worms and other attacks on business computers are increasing.

About one-fourth of America's economic value -- or some $3 trillion -- moves over network connections each day and may be vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to the Internet Security Alliance. The nature of potential attacks range from a broad "digital Pearl Harbor" that could ground airlines, cut off electricity and halt vast amounts of Internet traffic, to narrow attacks that steal identity or account information from individual banks, it said.


"We look forward to announcing the (assistant secretary) candidate to Congress very soon," George Foresman, preparedness undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, told a House panel hearing.

The department has interviewed "numerous candidates" and several have withdrawn from consideration over the past year for various reasons, Foresman said.

California Rep. Anna Eshoo and other Democrats on the Homeland Security subcommittee on telecommunications said they could not understand why the job has remained empty since October.

"We've gone without a cyber security czar for far too long," she said.

U.S. business groups said filling the job is crucial because that individual will help companies plan and coordinate how they can recover from a major cyber attack.
"What we need is a unifying motivator to get everyone to do the right thing," said Larry Clinton, chief operating officer of the Internet Security Alliance.

The alliance represents big corporate users of the Internet such as Mellon Financial Corp. (MEL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), American International Group Inc. (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

"We have to figure out a way to get market incentives moving so that the levees are built," Clinton said, referring to how levees can protect coastal cities from hurricanes.

For example, Congress could jump-start the fledgling cyber insurance market by requiring government contractors to buy cyber insurance, or by having the federal government serve as an insurer of last resort, Clinton said. Currently, only a handful of insurance carriers are willing to issue policies and the market is estimated at less than $200 million, he said.


Lawmakers could also offer tax incentives to encourage companies to adopt stricter security practices, he said.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has criticized the federal government for moving slowly on cyber security, said such incentives might work.

"We ought to consider those ideas," said David Powner, director of technology issues at the GAO. "Both the government and the private sector are poorly prepared to respond to major Internet disruptions."


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