Thursday, September 19, 2002
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Presidential Panel's Report Calls on Colleges to Aid in Securing NetworksBy DAN CARNEVALE
The White House released a draft report Wednesday calling on colleges and universities to develop network safeguards to protect computers from online attacks. But the report gave no specifics on how much the federal government should spend on university research to create the safeguards. Nor did it say what kinds of guidelines should be developed. The draft report is part of what the Bush administration says is a developing national plan for protecting computer networks from terrorist attacks. With computers controlling utilities, banking, and other crucial elements of the country's infrastructure, some observers are concerned that online attackers could wreak havoc. In addition, the same measures that would protect networks against terrorist attacks could also help guard against computer viruses and petty hackers. The Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, a panel created to advise President Bush, had planned on releasing its final report on Wednesday, but released a draft version instead so that more technology experts could comment on the recommendations. The final report may be released in November or December. Mark Luker, vice president of the education-and-technology consortium Educause, said higher-education institutions would play a key role in network-security research and development. The government will probably pick up the tab for some of that research, but the draft report did not say how much the government ought to spend. "We need to find the vulnerabilities that we already know about and fix them," Mr. Luker said. "There's no perfect solution. We won't be perfectly secure, just like there's no perfect solution to airport security short of not flying anymore." Officials from Educause and Internet2, an academic consortium that is developing high-speed Internet capabilities, made recommendations to the panel on how colleges and universities could play a role in protecting computer networks. Among other things, the report says higher education should look first at its own network security. Colleges and universities have large computer labs, high-speed Internet lines, and state-of-the-art computer equipment -- all of which are open to many users, the report states. It says institutions should guard against misuse of such facilities and also have a person to contact in case campus computer systems are used to wage an attack. The report also recommends that states create scholarship-for-service programs at universities to pay for the education of students specializing in computer security. After they graduate, the students would be required to work for the states for some period of time. Mr. Luker said colleges and universities would be able to abide by the panel's recommendations voluntarily, although many institutions will still have to figure out how to do so. "This is the beginning of a long process, not the end of it," he said. The draft report is available online at the White House's Web site. It can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
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 System to track foreign students is unlikely to make deadline, Justice Dept. official testifies Web site lists professors accused of anti-Israel bias and asks students to report on them U. of Texas endowment manager adopts policy requiring full disclosure of investment information Carnegie Corporation calls for major reforms in teacher education Annenberg Foundation gives $100-million each to Penn and the U. of Southern California Catholic U. in Peru angers students by handing out pamphlet calling homosexuality an illness Presidential panel's report calls on colleges to aid in securing networks "Bundled" e-journal subscriptions and academic libraries |
Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education