Clinton Addresses Internet Security Concerns
On Tuesday, President Clinton and Cabinet members met with Internet firms, security experts and civil liberties organizations to jointly address the vulnerabilities within the Internet. The panel discussed ways the public and private sector can work together on security initiatives.
"What we're going to try to do today is to talk about what the government's responsibility is for our own systems and networks; what the private sector's responsibility is; and. . .how to talk about having adequate security, how to protect privacy and civil liberties, but also how to keep the Internet open," President Clinton said at a press conference Tuesday.
"And keep in mind, one of the reasons this thing has worked so well is that it has to be free of government regulation."
In his budget proposal submitted to Congress, the President asked for $2 billion for cyber security and increased partnerships with the public sector. Attacks last week on sites such as Yahoo (YHOO) , Amazon.com (AMZN) and E*Trade (EGRP) , though have prompted the jump start of those efforts with a $9 million supplemental request for immediate use.
The White House also plans to participate with private companies in the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security. The group will be made up of federal, state and local officials, as well as infrastructure companies, risk management firms and others who deal with infrastructure issues. Its mission will be to explore ways in which industry and government can jointly address the risks to the nation's critical infrastructures.
Clinton said the recent denial of service attacks are cause for concern, especially because the Internet is now a viable business tool.
"It's a source of concern, but I don't think we should leave here with this vast sense of insecurity," he said. "We ought to leave here with a sense of confidence that this is a challenge that was entirely predictable; it's part of the price of the success of the Internet; and we're all determined to work together to meet it."