Forwarded From: darek milewski <darekmat_private> FBI Tries To Protect IT Systems From Intrusions The FBI is set to launch a national rollout of InfraGard, a partnership of businesses, the bureau, and its National Infrastructure Protection Center. The alliance is designed to protect IT systems from hacker attacks and other intrusions by providing a network for sharing information about attacks and how to thwart them. InfraGard, which the FBI began as a pilot program in Cleveland in 1997, will initially be expanded to at least 15 major cities around the country -- including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington -- says Van Harp, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Cleveland division. Harp says representatives from the FBI's 15 largest field offices recently met to discuss the expansion. He gave no specific timetable for the effort. InfraGard was formed as part of the federal government's effort to protect the nation's critical information systems. It's designed to ultimately serve as a national clearinghouse of information about security intrusions and vulnerabilities, and to offer tools to help detect and prevent attacks. Members are linked to each other and to the FBI by the bureau's secure "alert network," so companies can immediately and anonymously report incidents to government authorities and other members. The FBI provides encryption software developed by AT&T to protect information exchange among members. The National Infrastructure Protection Center will use data gathered from different InfraGard chapters to compile reports on nationwide security trends. The network will be expanded as the organization grows, Harp says. The FBI hopes the InfraGard program, which has already led to several computer-security criminal investigations, will lead to more reports of intrusions, he adds. -- Bob Violino ***For more on security, see the InformationWeek Resource Center; http://www.informationweek.com/center/entman.htm -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Hacker News Network [www.hackernews.com]
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