[ISN] 9/11 panel faults government on cybersecurity

[InfoSec News]

http://news.com.com/911+panel+faults+government+on+cybersecurity/2100-7348_3-5984743.html

By Joris Evers 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 6, 2005

The federal government is not making enough progress in protecting
critical infrastructures such as communications networks and the
Internet, said former members of the commission that investigated the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Progress also is lacking in airline security and providing radio
spectrum to first responders, according to the 9/11 Public Discourse
Project [1], which is made up of the 10 individuals--five Republicans
and five Democrats--who served on the Sept. 11 commission.

The 9/11 Public Discourse Project on Monday issued a report card with
an A- for battling terrorist financing, but all 40 of the other grades
(see PDF [2]) were lower.

There are far too many C's, D's and F's in the report card we will
issue today. Many obvious steps that the American people assume have
been completed have not been. Our leadership is distracted," the
project leaders said in a statement.

Critical infrastructure protection initiatives [3] received a D:  No
risk and vulnerability assessments have been made; no national
priorities have been established; and no recommendations have been
made on allocation of scarce resources, according to the report.

"All key decisions are at least a year away. It is time that we stop
talking about setting priorities, and actually set some," the former
commissioners wrote.

The shortcomings are "shocking" and "scandalous," according to the
9/11 Public Discourse Project.

The government also was faulted for a lack of agency
information-sharing that's needed to strengthen intelligence, members
said.

The former commissioners also critiqued the work on new, more secure
ID cards according to the Real ID Act [4]. New standards for issuing
birth certificates continue to be delayed until at least early 2006.  
"Without movement on the birth certificate issue, state-issued IDs are
still not secure," according to the report. In addition, Congress has
failed to take a leading role in passport security, the report said.

The system to check foreign visitors is not working as it should,
according to the 9/11 Public Discourse Project. The US-Visit (U.S.  
Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology [5]) screening
system is running, but not yet at all borders and the exit component
has not been widely deployed, the commissioners wrote.

The 9/11 Public Discourse Project has now been disbanded. The
commissioners have called on the public and government to act on the
recommendations.


[1] http://www.9-11pdp.org/
[2] http://www.9-11pdp.org/press/2005-12-05_report.pdf
[3] http://news.com.com/Homeland+Securitys+vague+cyber+plan/2100-7348_3-5937715.html
[4] http://news.com.com/FAQ+How+Real+ID+will+affect+you/2100-1028_3-5697111.html
[5] http://news.com.com/Biometric+pilot+program+to+tighten+U.S.+borders/2100-7348_3-5456989.html