News

USIS Washington File

15 February 2000

Clinton Holds Meeting on Ways to Make the Internet Safer

(Says it must remain open, but has to become more secure) (850)
By Wendy S. Ross and Stephanie Cupp
Washington File White House Correspondents

Washington -- President Clinton met February 15 at the White House
with executives of major e-commerce companies, computer security
experts, reformed hackers, officials of civil liberties organizations,
and members of his Cabinet to discuss ways the U.S. government and
private industry can work together to make the Internet less
vulnerable to hackers.

"The disruptions at several websites last week highlight how important
the Internet has become to our whole way of life in America, and how
vulnerabilities at one place on the Net can create risks for all,"
Clinton told those at the meeting.

Hackers last week scrambled traffic on several prominent e-commerce
Web cites including Amazon.com, Yahoo! and eBay interrupting their
service to customers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has
launched a criminal investigation into the matter.

Clinton told the gathering that it is important that the Internet
remain "open and free." But at the same time, he said, computer
networks must be made "more secure and resilient, and we have to do
more to protect privacy and civil liberties. And we're here to work
together."

Peter Solvik, the senior vice president and chief information officer
of CISCO Systems, said "the events of last week show that everyone --
Internet users, Internet companies, and government -- need to work
together to strengthen Internet security."

He said the executives represented at the meeting have joined with
leaders of other major Internet and information technology companies,
as well as with officials of industry trade associations to work
together on this issue.

"We're committed to increasing the security of the Internet by sharing
information on cyber attacks, vulnerabilities, countermeasures, and
best practices as a concrete way of improving security of the
Internet," Solvik said.

"We look to government," he said, "to play an important role by
coordinating this activity, ensuring its own systems are secure, and
continuing to support important Research and Development (R&D)
efforts."

Following the hour-long meeting, Clinton's Chief of Staff John Podesta
said "many of the people in the room commented on the fact that many
tools were out there to deal with security threats but many of the
tools were not being used. We need to be more proactive."

Secondly, he said, the federal government must serve as a role model.
Participants in the meeting, he said, supported Clinton's budget
initiative of over $2 billion to invest in enhancing Internet
security, increasing R&D, creating an institute to work in partnership
with the private sector to do more research and development on the
security issues.

And finally, he said, "there was a good deal of discussion that this
is a global issue, a global network, a global problem. It can't be
resolved simply by efforts by the United States government, or even by
the United States private sector. We need to work in partnership to
enhance security, but we need to work around the world on solutions
that, as the global information infrastructure is interconnected, will
have a reach beyond our borders."

Commerce Secretary William Daley said "Our information economy is
strong, and it is resilient. But last week's incidents were really a
wake-up call for all of us" to make sure that our systems are
adequately protected.

He pointed out that the Department of Commerce has initiated a
Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security with the private
sector. Officials of some 80 companies from different sectors of the
economy met with Commerce Department officials in December to discuss
these issues, he said, and will meet again February 22 "to try to
develop mechanisms by which we can share information and move forward"
in a multisector approach.

"It is not about the government regulating this or taking steps to
take actions that would at all impede the Internet because, of course,
it is the dynamic engine that is driving our economy today, and we
must keep that open," he said.

Harris Miller, President of the Information Technology Association of
America, said the meeting with Clinton had been "very, very positive."

"We provided to the President and the other U.S. government officials
who were present, a statement, which has been endorsed by 38 companies
just initially and 10 high-tech trade associations, committing to
sharing information and working together through a mechanism,
particularly to focus on cyberattacks, vulnerabilities,
countermeasures, and best information security practices," Miller
said. "Participation in this mechanism will be voluntary,
industry-led, and maybe virtual."

"We also discussed with the President the important global nature of
this challenge and the need to move forward in looking at this issue
on a global basis," Miller said.

Maynard Webb, President of eBay Technologies said that "There is no
silver bullet for what we're going after. It's a difficult problem,
but when we work together, we can solve it."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
usinfo.state.gov)