I presume this CNN article falls within the "Internet operational and technical 
issues" (especially security) criteria of the NANOG AUP,
in terms of "operat[ing] an Internet connected network",
especially where Chertoff refers to " like an anti-aircraft weapon, shoot down 
an [Internet] attack before it hits its target".

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/04/chertoff.cyber.security/index.html

Homeland Security seeks cyber counterattack system

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- First, there was "Einstein," the federal government's 
effort to protect itself from cyber attacks by limiting the number of portals 
to government computer systems and searching for signs of cyber tampering.

Then Einstein 2.0, a system now being tested to detect computer intrusions as 
they happen.

And in the future? Perhaps Einstein 3.0, which would give the government the 
ability to fight back.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday said he'd like to see a 
government computer infrastructure that could look for early indications of 
computer skullduggery and stop it before it happens.

The system "would literally, like an anti-aircraft weapon, shoot down an attack 
before it hits its target," he said. "And that's what we call Einstein 3.0."

At a meeting with reporters to highlight National Cyber Security Month, 
Chertoff reiterated his belief that the government should aggressively defend 
its computer systems, saying that terrorists, if they gain expertise already 
available to others, would "cause potentially very serious havoc" to government 
systems.

"Let's make the investment now rather than wait until there's a huge 
catastrophe," he said.

But despite his emphasis on the risks posed, Chertoff said the government is 
moving slowly to avoid stepping on the toes of the private sector as it 
addresses calls to reorganize the governance of cyberspace to provide 
accountability and authority.

"I think the question of what is the government's role in cyberspace in general 
needs to be discussed among all the stakeholders, because there is a culture of 
cyberspace that is an open architecture," he said. "And I think if we just came 
in and said we want to take it over, there'd be, understandably, a considerable 
amount of discomfort with that."

"We are deliberately going slowly because we recognize that the issue of 
government involvement in the Internet is fraught with all kinds of potential 
concerns and potential anxieties about not having the government have a 
big-foot impact on an area of communication and commerce that has traditionally 
been viewed as really independent and free."

Chertoff said the government is "feeling our way to what is the right mix of 
government involvement with protecting the Internet in the private domain while 
preserving everybody's comfort level that we're not going to be in their 
business in a way that would be inappropriate."

Asked if he envisioned a world with two cyberspaces, he said he envisions a 
world with "a lot of different levels of security and trust, depending upon the 
nature of what it is that you're doing."

"We already have that now, in the sense that we have classified systems which 
are walled off from unclassified systems," he said.
The Bush administration released its National Cyber Security Initiative in 
January. The "most immediate component" of it from the Department of Homeland 
Security's perspective, Chertoff said, is to increase security for federal 
government computer systems. 

But another priority is to work with the private sector to address threats to 
businesses. This includes not only protection from hackers, but also from 
counterfeit parts, which an individual or another nation could use to create 
vulnerabilities in the United States, he said. 
E-mail to a friend  
 

Tony Patti
CIO
S. Walter Packaging Corp.

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