Photo of Mike Vatis, until recently the director of the NIPC: http://www.mccullagh.org/image/10/mike-vatis-nipc.html GAO report in question: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01323.pdf -Declan *********** http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44019,00.html U.S.'s Defenseless Department By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 12:30 p.m. May 23, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- When the U.S. government created the National Infrastructure Protection Center in February 1998 to thwart "cyber criminals," officials couldn't stop talking about how the feds were finally fighting back against the hacker menace. Former Attorney General Janet Reno said at the time that the new agency would "pursue criminals who attack or employ global networks" -- and that without the NIPC, "the nation will be at peril." Three years later, it's the NIPC that's in peril -- of being dubbed a poorly-organized, ill-conceived bureaucracy that more established agencies routinely ignore and that has not lived up to the promises its proponents once made. Instead of becoming a highly-sensitive nerve center that responds to computer intrusions, congressional investigators have concluded that the NIPC has turned into a federal backwater that is surprisingly ineffective in pursing malicious hackers or devising a plan to protect electronic infrastructures. The NIPC received $32 million in 1999 and $28 million in 2000, not counting items like office space and telephones provided by the FBI. The remarkable 108-page report from the General Accounting Office that was released Tuesday shows how bureaucracy can defeat the best intentions of Congress and the White House. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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