CRIME FW: [Infragard_unsecured] Daily Report 08/09/02

From: George Heuston (GeorgeH@private)
Date: Fri Aug 09 2002 - 16:55:29 PDT

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    -----Original Message-----
    From: NIPC Watch [mailto:nipcwatch@private] 
    Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 6:12 AM
    To: IG Unsecured; IG Secured; IG Coordinators
    Cc: NCMS Daily
    Subject: [Infragard_unsecured] Daily Report 08/09/02
    
    NIPC Daily Report
     9 August 2002
    
    The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit compiles this report to inform recipients of
    issues impacting the integrity and capability of the nations critical
    infrastructures.
    
    AT&T reassures government on IP capacity.  Recently, AT&T Corp. executives
    told government officials there is plenty of capacity to handle the nation's
    IP traffic even if the UUNet backbone, one of the nation's largest carriers
    of Internet traffic, shuts down.  AT&T executives disputed claims that UUNet
    carries more than 50 percent of the nation's IP traffic, saying AT&T is
    virtually tied with UUNet with about a 15 percent share of traffic.  In the
    event of a shutdown, the country's eight major backbone providers would
    easily absorb UUNet's share, they said.  AT&T's chief technology officer
    described the 35-40 percent increase due to a UUNet failure as no more than
    background noise.  "The bottleneck would be at the edge of the network," he
    said and noted that providing local access to backbones could take months in
    some places in the event of a massive switchover.  "We are deploying local
    access infrastructure all over the country, but we're not everywhere."
    (Government Computer News, 7 Aug)
    
    DOD, FEMA test net defenses.  Representatives from all the armed services,
    the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other organizations began
    exploring how compatible their communications systems would be in homeland
    defense situations.  The 2002 Joint Users Interoperability Communications
    Exercise (JUICE), which began 5 August and runs through the end of the
    month, is using a mix of legacy and new technologies to support
    communications, command, and control requirements for a deployed joint task
    force in simulated homeland defense scenarios.  In such scenarios, the
    Department of Defense (DoD) serves in a supporting role to FEMA and other
    groups, said John Caruso, chief of the DoD's Executive Agent for Theater
    Joint Tactical Networks.  During JUICE, systems and operational approaches
    are being tested, including defending networks from cyberattacks.  FEMA
    participated in JUICE for the first time last year and applied what was
    learned to the response to the 11 September attacks.  This year FEMA is
    playing a larger role as part of a new collaborative initiative with the
    military, Caruso said.  FEMA Mobile Emergency Response System detachments
    will participate along with civil support teams from several states.
    (Federal Computer Week, 6 Aug)
    
    Airlines and airports fault US on communication about threats.  The federal
    government has made few changes to the system for alerting airlines and
    airports about terrorist threats.  Pilots, airlines, and airport managers
    argue that improved security means not just catching a bomber at the airport
    but also anticipating his actions and disrupting them in advance, which
    requires having better access to information. Plans to greatly expand
    intelligence under the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have
    faded under skepticism from Congress, which has cut the agency's budget and
    urged it to focus on checkpoint screening.  Even without an expansion, the
    agency needs a new infrastructure of secure communications to relay
    intelligence to all US airports.  That system is being planned, but
    officials would not comment on when it would be completed.  (Washington
    Post, 8 Aug)
    
    Nation's power grid holding up this summer despite record demand in some
    areas.  Despite high temperatures that produced record demands on utilities
    in some parts of the country, the nation's electric systems have handled
    this summer's scorching heat waves with power to spare. In recent weeks,
    power companies in the Midwest and Northeast reported record demand as
    temperatures lingered for days in the 90s. But except for some storm-related
    outages, air conditioners kept working with no shortfall of power. Experts
    cite increased attention to conservation in California and the opening of
    new power plants from California and Texas to New England as key to this
    summer's crisis-free flow of power.  (Associated Press, 8 Aug)
    
    Doubt cast on al Qaeda's cyber skills.  House terrorism panel chairman Lamar
    Smith recently predicted there is a "50 percent" chance the next al Qaeda
    attack against America will involve potentially devastating Internet
    sabotage; however, many computer security and intelligence experts disagree.
    These analysts and consultants contend that scant evidence exists that Osama
    bin Laden's terrorist network is capable of conducting such an attack or is
    even much inclined to try.  So far, al Qaeda has demonstrated it is a
    largely low-tech operation that has used the Internet and telecommunications
    in simple, rudimentary ways.  The is a possibility that al Qaeda could ally
    with others who do have such capabilities, even using hired guns to do its
    cyber-dirty work.  But, these experts say, the very nature of a cyber
    attack - which would occur out-of-sight without any visual impact - wouldn't
    suit bin Laden's main goal, which is spreading fear. (Scripps Howard News
    Service, 7 Aug)
    
    
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