Bush Adviser Warns Cyberterrorists

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6846-2002Feb13.html

By Jesse J. Holland
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2002; 7:18 PM 

WASHINGTON - The United States might retaliate militarily if foreign
countries or terrorist groups abroad try to strike this country
through the Internet, the White House technology adviser said
Wednesday.

"We reserve the right to respond in any way appropriate: through
covert action, through military action, any one of the tools available
to the president," Richard Clarke said at a Senate Judiciary
subcommittee hearing on cyberterrorism.

Clarke said Iran, Iraq, North Korea, China, Russia and other countries
already are having people trained in Internet warfare.

"A well-planned and well-executed cyberattack on America wouldn't just
mean the temporary loss of e-mail and instant messaging," said Sen.  
Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Terrorists could gain access to the digital
controls for the nation's utilities, power grids, air traffic control
systems and nuclear power plants."

Clarke refused to say what level of cyberattack might lead to a
military response from the United States. "That's the kind of
ambiguity that we like to keep intentionally to create some
deterrence," he told reporters.

So far, the United States has not caught any foreign governments or
terrorist group using Internet warfare, although that does not mean it
has not been attempted, Clarke said.

"We cannot point to a specific foreign government having done a
specific unauthorized intrusion into a U.S. government network,"  
Clarke said. "There are lots of cases where there has been
unauthorized intrusions but we have never been able to prove to our
particular satisfaction that a particular government did it."

But, he added, "if I was a betting man, I'd bet that many of our key
infrastructure systems already have been penetrated."

Clarke said a serious cyberattack is almost inevitable because it is
cheaper and easier for a foreign country or a terrorist group than a
physical attack.

America does need better security at its critical communication
locations, Schumer said. A train accident in a Baltimore tunnel last
year caused major Internet slowdowns in the mid-Atlantic states after
fiber optic cable running through the tunnel was damaged. A terrorist
attack could do even more damage, he said.

The White House budget office said it expects the government to spend
about $2.7 billion this fiscal year on computer and network security,
a figure projected to rise to $4.2 billion in the 2003 federal budget.

The budget office, in its first report to Congress on computer
information security, reported that "many agencies have significant
deficiencies in every important area of security."



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