The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit compiles this report to inform recipients of issues impacting the integrity and capability of the nation's critical infrastructures. Two Virginia Universities to join forces against cybercrime. George Mason University's National Center for Technology and Law and researchers and academicians at James Madison University formed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Project, to be housed at the George Mason School of Law in Arlington. The project is a collaborative effort between the two schools costing $6.5 million. The project was formed to help sort out the myriad legal, technical and policy challenges involved in steeling the nation's most vital computer systems against cyber-attack. The project will be lead by John A. McCarthy, a former member of a Clinton administration team that facilitated government and private-sector collaboration in preparing key computer systems for the Y2K conversion. "The information-sharing plan has been on the table for six years and we still haven't come up with a workable solutions because of legal obstacles," McCarthy said. "We hope that by putting our third-party hat on we'll be able to bring together the right constituencies to broker lasting and useful solutions to long-term problems. (Washington Post, 14 May) Islamic cyberterror - not a matter of if, but when. Bush administration Officials worry Islamic hackers will sooner or later graduate from pranks and vandalism to cyber-terrorism. Computer terrorists, experts say, could cause widespread disruption, or even loss of life, by interfering with essential services like telephone networks and power grids. Some US officials think a serious cyber-attack by Islamic militants is inevitable. "It's not a question of if," said an intelligence source. "It's a question of when." (Newsweek, 20 May) DOT's Inspector General cites CDL fraud problem. Federal and State officials are not doing enough "to defend against the alarming threat posed by individuals who seek to fraudulently obtain" commercial driver licenses, said a new report by the Department of Transportation's inspector general. The Office of the Inspector General made the remarks on 10 May, in an audit report on the Federal Motor Carrier Administration's oversight of state CDL testing and licensing. The report said CDL fraud is a significant problem and cited recent licensing scandals in 16 states. The report recommends FMCSA strengthen its oversight of state CDL testing programs and promptly correct the problems it finds in those programs. (Transport Topics, 10 May) Treaty to slash nuclear arsenal. On 14 May, President Bush announced that Russia and the USA have reached an agreement to each cut their stockpiles of nuclear warheads from 6,000 to 1,700-2,200. GAZETA says Russia has finally agreed to the US insistence of US stockpiling the warheads it takes out of service, rather than actually destroying them. (Caversham BBC, 14 May) US weighs July 4th threat. Islamic terrorists are planning an attack against a nuclear power plant located in the US to coincide with the July 4 celebrations, US intelligence sources say. US officials are taking the threat seriously, though they say it is not necessarily wholly reliable. The claims of a plot were obtained by US intelligence agencies last week. It coincides with other recent reports indicating that two al-Qaeda terrorists are planning an attack inside the US using radioactive material in a conventional bomb. The nuclear plant threat obtained last week indicated that an unidentified Islamic terrorist group is planning to attack the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear facility in Pennsylvania, or another nuclear facility in the State or elsewhere in the Northeast. The intelligence on the nuclear plant targeting followed earlier intelligence obtained from Abu Zubaydah, 31, who was wounded in a shootout with Pakistani police on March 28. He is considered a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden and the organizer of terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The captured al-Qaeda operations chief revealed that two of his terrorists were operating in a secret cell within the US and were planning an attack. Zubaydah disclosed that an American and an African national were planning to construct a radiological bomb -- a conventional bomb fortified with radioactive material to increase its lethality -- for the attack. (Washington Times, 13 May) US crude oil prices lower as Mideast tension eases. On 13 May, Energy analysts said prices were low because Israel decided not to pursue a raid into the Gaza Strip in retaliation for recent suicide bombing attacks. The 30-day Iraq oil export embargo was also taken into account. The International Energy Agency (IEA), said producers had weathered the steepest drop in demand in the industrialized world in 12 years during the first quarter of the year, but demand was expected to recover strongly. IEA said production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in April was at its lowest since 1993 because of Iraq's 8 April to 8 May export halt. However, the IEA said that production from the 10 other OPEC cartel members only dropped 20,000 barrels per day. OPEC, which has cut output 20 percent since the start of 2001, has virtually ruled out an increase in production when member oil ministers meet in Vienna in June 2002 to decide policy issues. (Reuters, 13 May) km
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