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Science Friday > Archives > 1997 > November > November 7, 1997

Hour One: Internet Warfare:
Fighting with bits and bytes instead of bombs and bullets.

In July of 1996, President Clinton created the Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection to review the nation's vulnerabilites to attacks on its infrastructure -- things like energy distribution systems, banking and financial networks, transportation services, and telecommunications networks. This week, the commission presented its final report to committees of both the Senate and the House. The commission found that the possibility for harm to the nation's infrastructure was real and widespread, that the national vulnerability is serious and increasing, that there is no way to predict or warn of an attack, and that the government and industry are unprepared to deal with one should it occur.

While the commission's security review included risks from both physical and electronic attacks, it was more concerned about virtual warfare. "We recognize the enormous significance of physical threats, but we have a significant amount of experience in dealing with them. It is the cyber threat that is new," states the report summary. "Life on the information superhighway isn't much different from life on the streets; the good guys have to hustle to keep the bad guys from getting ahead."

The commission's report echoes the findings of a RAND Corporation report on cyberspace security released last year, which predicted that attacks on cyberspace security will become much more prevalent, affect almost every corner of society, and have graver consequences in years to come. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll patrol the new battlefronts of information and electronic warfare, and take a look at what the nation can do to protect itself from these new threats.

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:

Roger Molander
Senior Researcher
RAND Corporation
Washington, DC

Stacey Evers
U.S. Military Affairs Correspondent
Jane's Defence Weekly
Alexandria, VA

Connie Morella
U.S. Representative (R-Maryland)
Chairwoman, House Subcommitte on Technology
Washington, DC

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Related Links:

Information Warfare

The Terrorism Research Center's Infowar area

The Computer Emergency Response Team

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Resource Clearinghouse