U.S. Prepares For Cyber-War
Fearing the next dogs of war might have more byte than bark, President Clinton will ask Congress next month for more federal money to combat cyber-terrorists.
The president said Friday he'll ask Congress for $91 million to battle computer terrorism. That, he said, will be part of a $2 billion plan for high-tech security.
Mr. Clinton said that the previous week's Y2K experience -- notable for its lack of major trouble -- nevertheless demonstrated how interconnected America's key computer systems are.
"There has never been a time like this, in which we have the power to create knowledge and the power to create havoc, and both those powers rest in the same hands," Mr. Clinton said.
CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports that it's the government's first plan to defend against a new kind of war -- cyber-war -- a war in which phone systems, utilities, and the government itself are attacked, not by weapons, but by computer.
Someone can sit at a computer, hack into a system and potentially paralyze a company, a city or government.
The threat is real. Three years ago, a hacker took down air traffic communications at the Worcester, Mass., airport during the showdown with Iraq. Hackers got into the Air Force computers that track and ship war supplies.
"There are countries that are today doing reconnaissance on our computer networks," said Richard Clark of the National Security Council. "You can imagine a scenario in which a foreign power someday crashes electric power grids, blow up gas pipelines, derails trains."
The president's cyber-defense plan calls for a new "research institute" to develop computer defense technologies. And he wants to create a cyber corps -- college students who get scholarships to become government experts in computer security.
"This program will create a new generation of computer security specialists, who will work to defend our nation's computers," Mr. Clinton said.
One of the president's proposals is controversial. It's called FIDNET, an intrusion detection network that would monitor suspicious contacts with government computers.
Critics call that a new form of government surveillance.
"The danger here is that innocent contacts can get red flagged as potential terrorist threats and suddenly an individual is labeled a potential hacker or cyber-terrorist," said Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Behind Friday's announcement was an astonishing admission of vulnerability. Government computers control take-offs and landings, military operations and the Federal Reserve. Whatever is open to the Internet is open to digital attack.
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