Details emerge on Clinton cybersecurity summit

The Clinton administration today plans to meet with high-level industry representatives to discuss ways to breathe new life into cybersecurity initiatives already in the works, including the announcement of $9 million to jump-start four government programs.

The White House meeting will include the main industry victims of last week's denial-of-service attacks, industry and academic security experts, and the administration's top security and management officials (see list).

Discussions mainly will focus on building the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security, a group formed in December under the leadership of Commerce Secretary William Daley. The partnership is intended to be a way for vendors and infrastructure owners from across market segments to work together on security matters. A White House source said although President Clinton will ask Daley to "participate aggressively" in the partnership meetings, the onus still will be on industry to solve problems without government interference.

"He will be asking them to think about what mechanisms they can use to work together and share information with each other, not with us," the official said.

On the government side, Clinton will be asking Neal Lane, advisor to the president on science and technology, and Richard Clarke, national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counterterrorism, and senior director of transnational threats at the National Security Council, to accelerate the development of the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, the official said. The institute, called for in the administration's National Plan for Information Systems Protection, will be a clearinghouse for information security research and development.

The president also will release a new supplemental funding request as part of the fiscal 2000 budget, asking Congress for an additional $9 million for four initiatives under the National Plan. "It's kind of jump-start money to get the initiatives moving," the administration official said.

The $9 million would be used as follows:

* $4 million for the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection.

* $2 million for the Federal Cyber Services initiative to train and recruit information security personnel.

* $2 million for the Federal Intrusion Detection Network, a program to coordinate intrusion analysis and response across the civilian agencies.

* $1 million to fund the continuation of an Expert Review Team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to help agencies develop and maintain their security plans and policies.