Administration officials appeal for a cyber partnership

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other speakers at a cyber-security summit here on Wednesday called for a new era of government and corporate participation in defending the nation against cyber terrorism.

Ridge said cyber security was a top priority of the Bush administration and called on all Americans to join the massive effort to secure computer systems. "The only way to test the limits of the possible is to go beyond the impossible," he said.

"We need your input and your help to strive for a level of protection that seems impossible and impenetrable to our enemies," Ridge told the business leaders at the event sponsored by the Business Software Alliance, Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), TechNet and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He noted that 85 percent of the nation's critical cyber infrastructure is in the private sector.

"To secure the homeland we have to secure our hometowns, and we have to do that at the cyber level as well," added Robert Liscouski, the assistant Homeland Security secretary for infrastructure protection. He noted that critical infrastructure exists not only within the federal government but also in businesses, schools and homes.

"The ability to compromise our systems can be as simple as seizing a few small computers in the home and using that to launch major attacks on our infrastructure," Liscouski said.

He alluded to the possibility of legislation requiring technology businesses to create and maintain more secure systems as a way to encourage the audience to aid cyber-security efforts.

"We have demonstrative results that the private sector is taking this seriously," Liscouski said. "We have to tell your story. If we can't tell your story, there are a lot of people out there who want to legislate your actions."

Speakers discounted the notion that cyber terrorism does not pose an imminent threat to the nation. "As you well know, there are countless ways computers impact society, and they are so vast we do not even think of them," said Ridge, who later cited power blackouts over the summer, and the "Sobig" and "MSBlaster" worms as examples of what can happen when computers fail. "These networks, and the infrastructure they support, do present an attractive target for terrorists."

"In some ways the situation we face now is analogous to the early days of air power in warfare," said Amit Yoran, the Homeland Security Department's cyber-security director. "There were those who thought that air power would hold little military value. But there were others [who] were able to envision how battles and wars could turn on air superiority. The war on terror is no different."

Harris Miller, president of Information Technology Association of America, said industry already is developing an early-warning system to share information among various computer systems. Just a few hours can be the difference between disaster and preventing a terrorist attack, he said.

TechNet President Rick White, meanwhile, announced the creation of a tool designed to help CEOs evaluate the cyber security of their organizations.