[Infowarrior] - Chertoff wants 'insider' threats studied

[Richard Forno]

Chertoff wants 'insider' threats studied

By DAN CATERINICCHIA

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MMJV0O5.htm

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday asked business
leaders to assess the potential conflict between national security demands
and employee privacy laws regarding risks to the nation's critical
infrastructure, such as water, energy and other utilities.

"It's something businesses must reflect upon and strike the right balance
between security with respect to their work force and the privacy workers
expect," Chertoff told The Associated Press following remarks to the
National Infrastructure Advisory Council. The council is a group of private
sector executives and state and local government leaders who meet four times
a year to provide the White House with advice about keeping important
networks secure.

The private sector controls about 85 percent of the nation's water, energy,
transportation and other critical facilities.

Chertoff said the council should explore the insider threat to critical
infrastructure systems to identify "sleepers who could be the source of the
threats."

Internal threats are a risk at all 17 critical infrastructure sectors and
represented the next logical step for the council to explore following
threat assessments at the entrances and perimeters of facilities, says
Robert Stephan, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Infrastructure
Protection.

In addition to water, energy and transportation, the 14 other critical
infrastructure sectors are: communications, chemical and hazardous
materials, commercial facilities, dams, defense industrial base, emergency
services, financial services, food and agriculture, government facilities,
information technology, national monuments and icons, nuclear power plants,
postal and shipping, and public health and health care.

Erle A. Nye, chairman emeritus of Texas' biggest electricity producer TXU
Corp., leads the council, whose members include executives from Intel Corp.,
Akamai Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., ConAgra Foods Inc., Symantec Corp. and
others.

The council on Tuesday presented final reports on how both electronic and
traditional security measures are being used to protect infrastructure, and
the prioritization of critical infrastructure demands for a pandemic in the
United States. It takes between six months and one year to complete a
report.