Excerpt:
Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited
to those who can show they take security seriously, he said... The
national press, including United Press International (UPI), were
excluded from yesterday's event, at Mr. Tenet's request, organizers said.
---
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20041201-114750-6381r
Tenet calls for Internet security
By Shaun Waterman
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published December 2, 2004
Former CIA Director George J. Tenet yesterday called for new security
measures to guard against attacks on the United States that use the
Internet, which he called "a potential Achilles' heel."
"I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when
we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control
or accountability," he told an information-technology security
conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to
governance and control."
The former CIA director said telecommunications -- and specifically
the Internet -- are a back door through which terrorists and other
enemies of the United States could attack the country, even though great
strides have been made in securing the physical infrastructure.
The Internet "represents a potential Achilles' heel for our
financial stability and physical security if the networks we are
creating are not protected," Mr. Tenet said.
He said known adversaries, including "intelligence services,
military organizations and non-state actors," are researching
information attacks against the United States.
Within the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security
has the lead role in protecting the Internet from terrorism. But the
department's head of cyber-security recently quit amid reports that he
had clashed with his superiors.
Mr. Tenet, who retired in July as director of the CIA after seven
years, warned that al Qaeda remains a sophisticated group, even though
its first-tier leadership largely has been destroyed.
It is "undoubtedly mapping vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our
telecommunications networks," he said.
Mr. Tenet pointed out that the modernization of key industries in
the United States is making them more vulnerable by connecting them with
an Internet that is open to attack.
The way the Internet was built might be part of the problem, he
said. Its open architecture allows Web surfing, but that openness makes
the system vulnerable, Mr. Tenet said.
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