[ga] Should the government get its own net?

[Joanna Lane <jo-uk@rcn.com>]

FYI

http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?150607:22450324

Should the government get its own Net?

By Robert Lemos
ZDNet News 
October 11, 2001 4:31 AM PT

The Bush administration has apparently decided that the Internet isn't
secure enough for its needs and has proposed a new network be created to
communicate critical government information.

The new network, dubbed Govnet, is the brainchild of Richard Clarke, the
newly appointed presidential adviser for cyberspace security, and is
intended to carry data, voice-over-IP and possibly video.


"Planning for this network has been going on for several months," Clarke
said in a statement Wednesday, adding that the General Services
Administration--the agency responsible for providing service and equipment
to the U.S. government--will play a critical role. "We need the combination
of skills the GSA has to establish this network quickly."

The agency posted a so-called request for information on its Web site
Wednesday, calling for the high-tech industry to create potential blueprints
for the new network.

The proposal outlines a network that uses the current Internet protocols
that would be limited to communications between government agencies and
other authorized users. "There will be no interconnections or gateways to
the Internet or other public or private networks," the RFI said.

In addition, the proposal requires that all data on the network be encrypted
using the current standard recommended by the National Security Agency and
that the network be immune to worms, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and
other Internet hazards.

During the announcement of his new position Tuesday, Clarke explained why a
secure network for critical government services is needed.

"Our economy, our national defense, increasingly our very way of life
depends upon the operation--secure and safe operation--of critical
infrastructures that in turn depend on cyberspace," he said. He made no
mention of the Govnet at the time.

However, the idea of a separate Internet for critical government services is
not a new one for Clarke. Last December, at Microsoft's SafeNet Conference,
Clarke proposed just such a network.

"We need to bifurcate cyberspace: We need to have a secure zone in
cyberspace and then we can leave the rest of it as it is today," he said at
the time, when he had been serving as President Clinton's National
Coordinator for security, counterterrorism and infrastructure protection on
the National Security Council.

The secure Internet should have the equivalent of armed guards at the doors
and no one would be anonymous, he added. "In this zone, privacy and security
could be achieved, as long as there is no anonymity."

The request for information calls for a network release in the contiguous 48
states, with the possibility of future expansion into Canada, Alaska and
Hawaii. Industry proposals are due by Nov. 21, and Clarke intends to hold
information-exchange meetings on the topic.





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