FC: Clinton creates new position to thwart hackers, cyberterror

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 11:56:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
To: politech () politechbot com
Subject: FC: Clinton creates new position to thwart hackers, cyberterror


WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton, in his waning
days in office, has ordered a retooling of the country's
counterintelligence efforts to take account of new espionage threats
and protect the private sector, the White House said on Friday.

The order will establish a new top government position -- a national
counterintelligence executive charged with overseeing activities
between the FBI, CIA and other agencies, and making sure they have
enough money. White House National Security Council spokesman P.J.
Crowley said Clinton signed the order in late December 2000 with a
view toward addressing a changing espionage environment in which
computer hackers can steal government and corporate secrets.

[...]

U.S. officials have long worried about the possibility of a terrorist
attack on the country's electricity grid or telephone systems. And
protecting company research and development secrets has increasingly
been viewed as a priority within the government.

[...]


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 14:25:26 -0500
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood () igc org>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 01/05/01

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
January 5, 2001

**      NEW COUNTERINTELLIGENCE BOARD ESTABLISHED
**      CIA, PFIAB BLOCK HISTORICAL DECLASSIFICATION
**      NEW REPORT ON COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY


NEW COUNTERINTELLIGENCE BOARD ESTABLISHED

The White House today is announcing the establishment of a new interagency
body, created by Presidential Decision Directive, to coordinate
counterintelligence (CI) activities across the government.

"To deal with the new CI threat environment, the CI community must be
restructured and transposed from a largely reactive state to a modern,
innovative program that is much more proactive," said John McGaffin, senior
adviser to the National Counterintelligence Center.  Mr. McGaffin discussed
the new initiative several months ago at a meeting of the Security Policy
Advisory Board.

One of the first things the new entity will do is to ask what information
really needs to be protected.  "The principle activities of [the new
organization] will include the identification of the critical assets that
must be protected by CI," said Mr. McGaffin.

This is a potentially awkward question for many agencies, because as soon
as one asks what information is genuinely sensitive, it immediately becomes
clear that an enormous amount of non-sensitive information is being
protected for no valid national security reason.

On the other hand, government bureaucracies are well-equipped to deflect
such inquiries.  Neither the National Counterintelligence Center nor the
Security Policy Board, which was likewise created by Presidential Decision
Directive in 1994, have had any fundamental impact on security policies.

The new initiative was reported today by the New York Times and the
Washington Post. The remarks of John McGaffin on CI-21 and the new
counterintelligence structure may be found here:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/spb/spab0900.html#CI-21

[...]





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