USA Today, June 5, 1996, p. 1. Feds ready anti-terror cyberteam By M.J. Zuckerman The Clinton administration, citing the threat of electronic terrorist attacks, is taking steps to secure cyberspace. The administration is expected to announce later this month formation of: + An emergency response task force, directed by the FBI and based in the Justice Department, to manage any terrorist incident involving an attack in cyberspace. The Cyber Security Assurance Group would funcaon as both an emergency response team and investigative body. It will respond to any collapse of the National Information Infrastructure -- the nation's vital computer systems such as banking, transportation and telecommunications. "The threat is there, it's very real," says CIA General Counsel Jeffrey Smith. "If we have a Unabomber who decides to launch an attack with a PC instead of a bomb, (there could be) a great deal of damage." + A commission, dominated by national security representatives and chaired by a private sector person, to deliver within 12 months a national policy on cyberspace security. The commission faces difficulty in balancing government inter-agency turf battles as well as dealing with industry and the private sector, which oppose Internet regulation. "This is one of the toughest issues government faces today," says Smith. The initiatives have emerged from an unprecedented, closely guarded series of meeangs held in recent months between leading administration officials from law enforcement, national security and defense. Attorney General Janet Reno, acting under a classified presidential directive issued late last year in response to the Oklahoma City bombing, chairs the panel. It includes the directors of the CIA and FBI along with Cabinet secretaries from Treasury, Commerce, Transportation and Energy. Today, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations holds the second in a series of hearings examining cyberspace security and threats to information systems. The panel's minority staff is expected to endorse administration proposals to clearly draw national policy on information security but calls for a more ambitious emergency response effort by government. [End] ---------- To see adjoining UT article (9 kb), "Post-Cold War hysteria or a national threat?" http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/hysteria.txt