Panel Chair: Mr. Arthur Friedman, NSA
Mr. Scott Charney, Department of Justice
Ms. Ellie Padgett, NSA, National Incident Response Team
Mr. Mark Rasch, Global Integrity
Mr. John Thomas, Averstar
Last year President Clinton ordered the strengthening of the nation's
defenses against emerging unconventional threats to the United
States and the protection of our critical infrastructures. The
Critical Infrastructure Protection directive (Presidential Decision
Directive - 63) calls for a national effort to assure the security
of the increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures
of the United States. Such infrastructures include telecommunications,
banking and finance, energy, transportation, and essential government
services. The directive requires immediate federal government
action including risk assessment and planning to reduce exposure
to attack. It stresses the critical importance of cooperation
between the government and the private sector by linking designated
agencies with private sector representatives.
Both the federal government and private industry have become more
proactive to protect our national infrastructure, such as telecommunications,
energy, defense, transportation. There have been many legal,
technical, and possibly ethical issues in developing capabilities
to respond to attacks. What should be the United States position
to protect our telecommunications networks, banking and finance,
and our livelihoods? How proactive should industry become? What
partnerships should be developed between government and industry?
These are some of the questions that the panel will consider.
The panel consists of experts that represent the National Incident
Response Team, law enforcement, industry response to protecting
our networks, and legal advice to both government and industry.