(Fwd) Information Superhighway - GAO Report

[Richard F. Dutcher]

Old news, I'm sure, but certain to be cited in the legal & regulatory 
debates ...

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 25 Jan 1995 11:49:42 EST
Reply-to:      gao-docs <gao-docs at MAILHOST.GAO.GOV>
From:          gao-docs <gao-docs at MAILHOST.GAO.GOV>
Subject:       Information Superhighway - GAO Report
To:            Multiple recipients of list PUBPOL-L <PUBPOL-L at UMINN1.BITNET>

                       GAO Report - Information Superhighway

The U.S. General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog
agency, has recently released the following report:

  *** ASCII Full Text Access and Ordering Info Follows ***

TITLE:    Information Superhighway: An Overview of Technology Challenges
          RPTNO: AIMD-95-23                  DOCUMENT DATE: 01/23/95

BACKGROUND:
    GAO reviewed the technical issues associated with protecting the
    information superhighway from unauthorized access.
FINDINGS:
    GAO found that: (1) the information superhighway poses technical challenges
    concerning the security, privacy, and reliability of personal and
    proprietary information; (2) a large proportion of the information that
    will traverse the superhighway will be sensitive and a tempting target for
    hackers, foreign governments conducting political and military intelligence
    operations, domestic and foreign enterprises engaged in industrial
    espionage, or terrorist groups seeking to disrupt society or the economy;
    (3) significant effort will be needed to define, develop, test, and
    implement measures to prevent unauthorized access to the superhighway; (4)
    although the federal government could play a leading role in ensuring the
    superhighway's security, critics argue that individuals should be free to
    choose the technical means for meeting their security requirements; (5) a
    major challenge facing the development of the information superhighway will
    be creating a consensus between the federal government, computer and
    communications industry, business community, and civil liberties groups on
    how to ensure information security and privacy; (6) federal and private
    sectors have begun establishing uniform standards to ensure the
    superhighway's interoperability; and (7) questions remain about how to
    protect the superhighway from large network failures and encourage the
    telecommunications industry to develop a secure and reliable
    infrastructure.

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This report is available both in print and electronically.

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6) Select file name: Information Superhighway: AI95023.TXT

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***************************************************************
Rich Dutcher, San Francisco Greens
P.O. Box 77005, San Francisco, California 94107 USA

"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves."
                          Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars"

Greens, of course, only enslave plants - so weed-whackers work better than cops ...