Governmentwide secure network a 'pipe dream,' report says
The concept behind the Bush administration's proposal to build a super-secure voice and data network for federal civilian agencies is flawed, according to Forrester Research Inc., a market research company based in Cambridge, Mass.
The administration recently released a request for information (RFI) outlining a network that would be independent from all other networks and thus impervious to cyberattacks. Called GOVNET, the network would be immune to the threats posed by viruses, worms and denial-of-service attacks.
The GOVNET wish list includes airtight security, complete isolation and total survivability, according to Forrester's report, "A New Secure Government Network: Keep It Simple."
"GOVNET sounds great in theory," said the report, "but it simply won't work. A massive, completely partitioned government network is a pipe dream." At issue is the persistent threat of insider hacking, complex system interconnectivities and the need to move data from one agency to another, said the report.
"To do any real good, GOVNET will have to connect to a wide variety of government agencies," said the report. But the network's very breadth will make it susceptible - like any other network - to "people with legitimate access setting out to do damage." Former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey brought up the same point at a conference Wednesday. The problem, he said, "is that not absolutely everyone in government is going to be on our side."
System interconnectivities could also be GOVNET's downfall. "Systems on GOVNET will have to be dedicated to it," the report stated, "they can't be cross-connected to any other network." Eliminating such crossover will be very complex, violating the report's advice: "Keep it simple."
With 43 different agencies falling under the purview of the new Office of Homeland Security, information-sharing has become a hot topic. But getting data that resides on any network attached to the Internet to GOVNET could create serious issues, impeding the needs of managers who are increasingly demanding real-time data. "[Many] intelligence-gathering systems such as Echelon and Carnivore are necessarily connected to public networks," the report said. "Moving vast amounts of information they gather to GOVNET without electronic connections between networks would significantly limit their utility."
The report does offer the government a solution: dutiful interagency cooperation. GOVNET could be dedicated to a small subset of highly sensitive data shared between, for example, the FBI and the NSA, the report surmised. But first, agencies would have to agree on what to share, it said.
"Complexity is the bane of security," said the report's author, Forrester analyst Frank Prince. "There has to be a balance between the cost of implementing a new system and doing a better job of securing the systems you've already got."
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