U.S. antiterrorism efforts to include Internet

The United States' war against terrorism will be fought through unconventional means that will include the Internet, Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said on Friday, even as he added that President Bush's Thursday night address to the nation was likely to minimize any risks of cyberwarfare by terrorists.

"By virtue of the pressure being put on terrorist groups by the President, the threat might have gotten less than more in the short term," said Bennett, who chaired a temporary committee on the Year 2000 computer bug and has continued to focus on computer security and network issues.

Citing the array of industries that were affected by the cancellation of all air traffic after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bennett described the airline infrastructure--much like the infrastructure of the Internet--as a "highly leveraged" industry with cascading vulnerabilities for the economy.

"Put the attack and recession together and you'll see how crucial it is to get the Internet working with the rest of the economy," Bennett said, calling this "a time when Americans face a task unlike anything they have ever faced before."

Bennett, who spoke at a forum on Internet security with Entrust CEO William Conner and Daniel Chenok, head of the Office of Management and Budget's Information Technology and Policy Division, also raised concerns about a legislative overreaction that could jeopardize privacy.

On Thursday, many civil liberties and privacy groups objected to portions of the Justice Department's anti-terrorism bill that would expand law enforcement's ability to conduct electronic surveillance, including Internet-based communications.

"We need to be very careful that in our zeal to prosecute terrorism, we don't intrude upon liberties" such as freedom of information, privacy and private property, Bennett said. He acknowledged that "in the present atmosphere, the President can get just about anything he asks for."

But officials at many technology companies, including Entrust, expressed relief that the administration's proposal does not include measures that would weaken their ability to incorporate strong encryption or require them to include "back doors" in software they export. These back doors would allow the U.S. government to access the encrypted product.

"The reality of the situation is you can't turn back the clock," Conner said in a breakfast interview with reporters from National Journal's Technology Daily. "There are over 200 locations around the world where you can download encryption technology. All [back doors] will be a bullet turned back on ourselves rather than a bullet aimed at the terrorists."

At the forum, Chenok recapitulated the Bush administration's approach to e-government, stressing its capability to "transform government operations in order to improve effectiveness, efficiency and service delivery." He said the government hopes to work in partnership with businesses to facilitate the widespread adoption of e-signatures for government's communications with other government agencies, with the business sector and with citizens.