Security groups call for crisis coordination center
By Florence Olsen fcw.com
March 18, 2004 

Two national task forces organized by the National Cyber Security 
Partnership called for a public awareness campaign, an early warning 
contact network and a national crisis coordination center to improve 
the nation's responses to cyber vulnerabilities, threats and 
incidents. 

Created last December at the National Cyber Security Summit, the task 
forces released their recommendations today for improving the nation's 
cybersecurity defenses. The National Cyber Security Partnership was 
formed to bring together private organizations and government 
agencies. 

No price tag was attached to the task forces' suggestions, but 
establishing a national crisis coordination center by 2006 most likely 
would require legislation or an executive order. Guy Copeland, who led 
the Early Warning Task Force, said the center would coordinate threat 
analyses, warnings, research and responses for critical 
infrastructure-sector experts and federal, state and local officials. 
Copeland is vice president of information infrastructure advisory 
programs for Computer Sciences Corp.'s federal-sector business. 

The center would "bridge some cultural barriers that have hampered a 
true partnership in counterterrorism and cybersecurity," the task 
force report said. 

The early warning contact network, to be set up as early as December, 
would be a multichannel network housed and administered by the 
Homeland Security Department's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. 
Communication would occur primarily via the Internet, although task 
force leaders recommended having a backup means of communicating if 
the Internet goes down. 

Other recommendations of the task forces would be relatively 
inexpensive and easy to achieve. The Common Sense Guide to Cyber 
Security for Small Businesses, prepared by the Internet Security 
Alliance, is already available and free for downloading. The Awareness 
and Outreach Task Force has as one of its initial goals to reach 50 
million households. 

Reaching home users will be accomplished largely through the 
cooperation of Internet service providers who would keep their 
customers informed of cybersecurity threats and attacks, task force 
leaders said. 

The task force also recommended reaching corporation executives 
through a series of regional homeland security forums with DHS 
officials, beginning in September, and through a direct-mail campaign, 
to begin in July. Both the forums and the mailings would emphasize the 
role of senior corporate executives in securing cyberspace. 

As a strategy to extend cybersecurity awareness to state and local 
governments, the outreach task force recommended holding DHS forums 
with governors and mayors, similar to the forums that will be held 
with industry leaders. 

The cybersecurity partnership, headed by the Business Software 
Alliance; the Information Technology Association of America; TechNet, 
a chief executive officers group; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
includes academic, corporate, government and industry cybersecurity 
experts.