Report Recommends Computer Protection Commission Warns Of Cascading Failures In Nation’s Systems

The nation’s power, water, finance and emergency systems are increasingly connected, especially through the Internet, and government research funding to prevent cascading failures should be doubled, a presidential commission says.

The President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection is reviewing security for eight critical infrastructures: electric power distribution, telecommunication, banking and finance, water, transportation, oil and gas storage and transportation, emergency services and government services.

“These are the life support systems of the nation,” the commission chairman, retired Air Force Gen. Robert T. Marsh, said in an interview Saturday. “They’re vital, not only for day-to-day discourse, they’re vital to national security. They’re vital to our economic competitiveness world wide, they’re vital to our very way of life.”

The commission’s advisory committee, in its first official meeting, said Friday that the budget for research and development against threats to critical infrastructure now stands at $250 million. The commission recommended doubling those expenditures to $500 million in 1999 and adding $100 million a year to $1 billion by 2004.

The research and development funding is scattered through different agencies, but is mainly in the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the departments of Commerce and Energy, Marsh said.

Intentional or accidental damage to one aspect of the nation’s infrastructure could domino and bring down other systems.

Because much of this infrastructure is in the hands of private business, the commission believes the government and private sector should work together to protect the system.

“The federal government has a very important interest in ensuring that they are continually available,” Marsh said.

The Internet, which itself is becoming more vital, makes all of these systems vulnerable, Marsh said.

“The Internet provides an access point into all these infrastructures,” either through control systems directly on the Internet or indirectly, Marsh said.