PANEL: Legal and Technical Responses to Protecting the

United States Critical Infrastructures

Panel Chair: Mr. Arthur Friedman, NSA

Mr. Scott Charney, Department of Justice

Ms. Ellie Padgett, NSA, National Incident Response Team

Mr. Mark Rasch, Global Integrity

Mr. John Thomas, Averstar


Last year President Clinton ordered the strengthening of the nation's defenses against emerging unconventional threats to the United States and the protection of our critical infrastructures. The Critical Infrastructure Protection directive (Presidential Decision Directive - 63) calls for a national effort to assure the security of the increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures of the United States. Such infrastructures include telecommunications, banking and finance, energy, transportation, and essential government services. The directive requires immediate federal government action including risk assessment and planning to reduce exposure to attack. It stresses the critical importance of cooperation between the government and the private sector by linking designated agencies with private sector representatives.

Both the federal government and private industry have become more proactive to protect our national infrastructure, such as telecommunications, energy, defense, transportation. There have been many legal, technical, and possibly ethical issues in developing capabilities to respond to attacks. What should be the United States position to protect our telecommunications networks, banking and finance, and our livelihoods? How proactive should industry become? What partnerships should be developed between government and industry? These are some of the questions that the panel will consider.

The panel consists of experts that represent the National Incident Response Team, law enforcement, industry response to protecting our networks, and legal advice to both government and industry.