The Clinton Administration has developed a plan for an extensive computer monitoring system, overseen by the FBI to protect the integrity of the nation's key data networks from criminals.
According to The New York Times this plan is raising the ire of civil liberties groups. A draft of the plan, prepared by the National Security Council last month and provided to the Times by a civil liberties group, calls for a software system to monitor activities on nonmilitary government networks and a separate system to track networks used in highly data-sensitive industries like banking, telecommunications and transportation.
The White House is reviewing the plan, which would allow the government to monitor the flow of information through federal-agency computers. Government IT workers would seek to detect and prevent viruses and hacker attacks.
The project stems from the presidential directive issued last year that declared the U.S. information infrastructure must beef up its security. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, if this plan is implemented, private computer systems could ask to join the network, raising the prospect that government officials may also be able to monitor this information.
The creation of two broad, FBI-controlled computer monitoring systems designed to act as watchdogs over key data networks is reportedly on the White House's agenda, said CNET News.com, which cites the Times article.
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