Homeland Security Office Asks for Tech Help

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110514,00.asp

Feds worry that businesses are too complacent about cyberthreats.

Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security is looking for a few good technology ideas.

Tom Ridge, sworn in as the secretary of the new U.S. federal agency in
January, highlighted his department's need for technological
innovations during a speech before nearly 1,000 members of the
Northern Virginia Technology Council in McLean, Virginia, Tuesday.  
Ridge also called for the technology businesspeople in attendance to
do more to protect the U.S. technology infrastructure, noting that
private companies control 85 percent of the nation's cyber resources.

"When it comes to security, you must be more than partners, you must
be leaders," Ridge said. "We think that the lessons learned from Y2K
and 9/11 should be applied and not forgotten. This will not be a
cost-free arrangement, but the cost of doing little or nothing will be
much higher."

Too Relaxed?

A recent poll showed that about half of U.S. companies aren't backing
up files, checking new employees' backgrounds, or conducting emergency
drills, Ridge said, and he fears that some U.S. residents may be
"lapsing into complacency" about the possibility of terrorist attacks.

That study, commissioned by the New York security services firm
Guardsmark, surveyed more than 200 U.S. security professionals in
early March, and 44 percent of respondents said they were not backing
up important files at remote locations.

"You need to be just as worried, maybe even more worried, about
somebody hacking into your system as somebody pulling up with
explosives," Ridge said. "We've got some work to do."

A Few Good Ideas

Ridge spent much of his speech talking about the need his agency has
for good technology ideas that protect U.S. borders and citizens. He
touted an agency Web site that collects technology ideas related to
domestic security. He talked about several technology initiatives at
the Department of Homeland Security, including personal radiation
detectors for all border agents and gamma ray scans of shipping
containers at border stations, but he said more new technology ideas
are needed.

He even gave an example, asking the audience if anyone had an idea for
a portable device that can scan for biological, chemical, and
radiological hazards, as well as explosives and guns. "If you've got
one of those ... we'd be happy to talk to you about it," he said.

The technology Ridge's agency needs is either out there, or it can be
created by the U.S. technology sector, Ridge added. "We want to create
a climate where our needs and your abilities meet," he said. "We want
to show you that homeland security is not incompatible with your
bottom line."

Ridge asked the crowd for "good ideas and cost-effective solutions"  
for domestic security that can be copied across the U.S. "You are the
innovators," he told the crowd. "America's future is, at least in
part, in your hands."



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn'
in the BODY of the mail.