Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Legislator discusses interoperability, homeland security, cybersecurity

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 21:16:34 -0400

Legislator discusses interoperability, homeland security, cybersecurity
By HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER
July 27 13:10:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—Interoperability is not easy, but it is something that needs
to happen and it is something Congress is
concerned about, said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the
House cybersecurity subcommittee.

“One of the things we talk a lot about in the halls of Congress is
interoperability,” said Thornberry. “We have made
some good first steps in getting everybody talking about how we can have
a basis and standard of interoperability at a
specific level. We have had some interim fixes in hardware and software
that have helped in the meantime. You are
going to have to have a national roadmap that deals with spectrum issues
and a whole variety of things before you
really solve the interoperability problem, which we know was an issue on
Sept. 11 and continues to be.”

Interoperability between first responders has long been a conversational
topic for policy-makers, but Thornberry said
the problem is complex.

“It seems like it ought to be simple for everybody to go out and have
the same radios so the police in one county can
talk to the firemen in the next, and yet when you get into it, there are
a number of complex issues that technology alone
simply will not solve,” said Thornberry.

Thornberry appeared Monday evening at the National Press Club Tech Talk.
His topic was advertised as cybersecurity,
but he touched on many homeland-security topics. For example, he said he
has been frustrated with the development of
the Department of Homeland Security.

“The direct answer is no, the Homeland-Security Department has not met
my expectations or my hopes, and there are a
variety of factors. It took forever to get people into DHS,” said
Thornberry. “It took a long time to get up and running.”

Thornberry would like to create an assistant secretary within DHS to
oversee cybersecurity. “I believe cyber has unique
challenges,” he said.

Unlike many experts who believe the next major terrorist attack will
include a cyber component, Thornberry is not so
sure. “It is pretty unlikely that terrorists are going to use the
Internet to control a nuclear-power plant or a hydrological
dam or some way this is going to hurt or kill huge numbers of Americans.
It is not something to ignore, but it is unlikely,”
he said. “We know terrorists use the Internet to communicate with one
another, and it makes it very difficult to trace so
they have an interest in keeping it up and running to facilitate their
own communications.”

Thornberry did acknowledge that there is an intersection between the
physical critical infrastructure—like the
telecommunications network—and the cyber network, and that attacking
both simultaneously could happen.

“I think the intersection between the physical and cyber infrastructure
is a topic of high-interest among terrorists—partly
as I mentioned in a combination sort of attack—you can increase the
devastation, you can reduce the response, you can
increase the chaos by combining them,” said Thornberry.

Cybersecurity is seen as one of the challenges that must be overcome
before broadband can become universal,
according to Scott Kriens, chairman and chief executive officer of
Juniper Networks. Kriens was one of the experts that
CNET.com asked to participate in a broadband roundtable that was posted
Monday morning.

“With dial-up, people generally logged on for an hour or so—a brief
window for hackers and viruses to contaminate a
home personal computer or network. As broadband maintains an ongoing
link to the Internet, users and networks are
more vulnerable and susceptible to malicious attacks. This is a problem
that will grow proportionally with the
ever-growing number of broadband users,” wrote Kriens. “This year, the
presidential campaign is giving broadband
much-needed exposure, but it needs to be included on the national
agenda. In addition, to government policies such as
subsidies for schools and other public agencies, the industry needs to
examine ways to protect and improve our
networks.”

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18991

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/61FxlB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email-masked]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/