Infrastructure Protection

or Richard Clarke, the Internet is a dangerous frontier occupied by terrorists and hostile nations. Clarke is President Bush's special adviser on cyberspace security, and it is his job to bring the public and private sectors together to form a coherent defense of the nation's critical infrastructures-transportation, communications, finance, power and water systems.

Clarke's position was created by an October 2001 executive order, "Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Information Age," which further formalized federal critical infrastructure protection activities launched by President Clinton in 1998. Clinton's directive created the first federal structure for protecting the nation's most important information systems.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, Clarke served with the National Security Council as national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counterterrorism. Clarke's current focus bridges homeland security and national security. When events take a national turn, Clarke reports to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. When there is an international flavor, Clarke reports to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Clarke heads the high-level Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which is overseeing the creation of the nation's cyber defenses. One of Clarke's first proposals in his new position was GovNet-a network that would be separate from the Internet and impervious to distributed denial-of-service attacks in which hackers direct massive amounts of computer gibberish from hundreds of computers to shut down target Web sites and networks. "Even if you secure an enterprise, that enterprise can still be taken down by a distributed denial-of-service attack," Clarke says. "Some federal functions such as air traffic control, manned space flight and FEMA's operations during a disaster really can't [be allowed to] suffer an outage."

Clarke is often on the road, speaking with private sector experts about new technologies that can be used in the fight against cybercrime and cyberterrorism. This is not Clarke's first high-profile assignment. A former State Department employee, Clarke rose through the ranks to be the deputy assistant secretary of State for intelligence in the Reagan administration. During the first Bush administration he served as assistant secretary of State for politico-military affairs.

Clarke has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

he nation is linked together and supported by a digital nervous system, says John Tritak. He worries that the nation is becoming more vulnerable as American citizens increasingly rely on technology to support their basic needs. That's why Tritak advocates protecting the nation's most critical information systems.

As the director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), Tritak is responsible for coordinating the creation and implementation of the "National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure Protection." Version No. 1 of the plan focused on the interagency coordination required to address infrastructure protection.

The next version, which is due out this summer, will focus on the private sector's responsibilities. The Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office is heavily involved with private sector outreach and attempts to impress upon the companies that control 90 percent of the nation's infrastructure the necessity of protecting their information systems. Tritak also was key in developing Project Matrix, which federal agencies must use to determine their reliance on critical infrastructures.

The Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office is part of the Bureau of Industry and Security, formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration. The bureau coordinates all homeland security-related activities for the Commerce Department. The office may now become part of the new Homeland Security Department. Before heading the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, Tritak was an attorney at the Washington law firm, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand. Also a former State Department official, Tritak served as an adviser to the delegation negotiating the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, among other positions.

Tritak has a bachelor's degree in political science from the State University of New York at Brockport, a master's degree in War Studies from Kings College at the University of London, and a doctorate in law from the Georgetown University Law Center.

on Dick wears two hats as the director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. He coordinates investigations into cybercrimes and works to help the private companies that own most of the nation's critical infrastructure share information about threats to their information systems.

Dick is the center's second director. Created in 1998 by Presidential Decision Directive 63, the National Infrastructure Protection Center is part of the FBI. Its staff is provided by numerous Defense Department and civilian agencies. Where the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office functions as a policy driver, NIPC is solely operational. For instance, when the Code Red computer worm spread in the summer of 2001, Dick spread the word about the dangerous program. The center's analysis and outreach sections may be pulled out into the new Department of Homeland Security.

Dick has spent most of his career with the FBI. Graduating from The University of New Mexico with a bachelor's degree in accounting, Dick entered the FBI in 1977 and began investigating violent, white-collar and drug crimes. From there he rose through the ranks until he was promoted to chief of the Computer/Financial Institution Crimes Unit of the Financial Crimes Section at FBI headquarters in Washington. Before assuming NIPC's directorship, Dick was the assistant special agent in charge of New Mexico.

s a former State Department official who worked on issues concerning weapons of mass destruction and nonproliferation, Paul Kurtz is always on the lookout for threats to national security. Now, instead of tracking nuclear warheads, he is working to shore up the defenses of the nation's most important information systems.

"We must keep in mind we could possibly be attacked from abroad," Kurtz said at a recent technology trade show.

And those attacks could come across the Internet said Kurtz, who reports to Richard Clarke, the presidential special adviser on cyberspace security. Kurtz constantly emphasizes the need for private firms to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattack-after all, they own 90 percent of it. "We do have enemies," he said. "The worst can happen."

Kurtz has been behind efforts to create the GovNet network, priority cell phone access for emergency workers and the Cyber Warning Information Network, a system for alerting federal agencies to a wide-ranging cyberattack.

"We need to have procedures in place in case the worst case occurs," he said. "Cold War radars aren't so effective here."

From 1995 to 1999, Kurtz worked as a foreign affairs officer at the State Department's Bureau of Nonproliferation. Before that, he spent five years at State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He has a bachelor's degree from Holy Cross College and a master's degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.