DATE=1/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CYBERTERRORISM - L-ONLY
NUMBER=2-257879
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton says electronic attacks on U-
S computer systems are a serious and growing threat.
He plans to beef up U-S defenses against cyber-
terrorism, and is trying to develop new tools and
cyber soldiers for the effort. V-O-A's Jim Randle
reports, Mr. Clinton calls cyber-terrorism a menace to
American security and prosperity.
TEXT: The U-S Government's top computer security
organization says the number of attacks on government
and business computers in the United States has gone
up nearly seven fold in the past eight years.
Pentagon experts report 80 to 100 attempts to break
into military computer networks each day, and the
number is growing. There are many more such attacks
on computers elsewhere in government and business.
President Clinton says the United States needs to
develop many more highly skilled and educated workers
to block these attacks, which are growing more and
more sophisticated and dangerous.
/// FIRST CLINTON ACT ///
We need to do more to bring people into the
field of computer security. That's why I am
proposing a new program that will offer college
scholarships to students in the field of
computer security, in exchange for their public
service afterward.
/// END ACT ///
The president also plans to fund a new research
facility that will focus on cyber tools and weapons.
He hopes institute will attract the best minds in the
computer industry.
/// BEGIN OPT ///
Experts say the United States is a leader in computer
technology and has put computers to work running key
infrastructures from electric power and running water
to air traffic control and banking.
/// 2ND CLINTON ACT - OPT ///
Information technology has helped to create the
unprecedented prosperity we enjoy at the end of
the 20th century.
/// END ACT ///
But this dependence on computers also makes the U-S
economy vulnerable to computer disruption caused by
teenage hackers, industrial spies, or serious attacks
by foreign governments.
/// END OPT ///
Mr. Clinton is asking Congress to approve a 17 percent
increase in cyber defense funds, which would raise the
government's spending on such matters to about two
billion dollars. He pledged to work closely with
Congress, industry and the public to craft ways to
fight cyber attacks without slowing electronic
commerce or infringing on civil liberties. (Signed).
NEB/JR/JO
07-Jan-2000 12:10 PM EDT (07-Jan-2000 1710 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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