Secret Computer Security

[Bill Frantz]

In the spirit of I. F. Stone...

Buried in the last paragraphs of an article in yesterday's San Jose Mercury
News (Thursday, May 15) that starts out talking about members of congress
saying that the US is ill-prepared to defend against an attack on critical
computer systems is the following gem.

"Last fall's legislation authorized the National Science Foundation to
spend $110.25 million on cyber-security research, but the agency is
requesting only about $51 million.  DARPA's unclassified budget for
cyber-security research has actually declined, from about $90 million in
2000 to $30 million in 2003.  But Tether [Tony Tether, director of DARPA]
said those figures were misleading, because more projects are now
classified.  He estimated the agency will spend about $100 million on
cyber-security research in 2004."

Note also that DARPA's support of the OpenBSD project has been dropped (see
http://www.openbsd.org/).

Do these changes mean that the US is trying to protect "critical
infrastructure" using classified techniques so other nation's systems can
be hacked while US ones are safe?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers - Bill


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Bill Frantz           | Due process for all    | Periwinkle -- Consulting
(408)356-8506         | used to be the         | 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz at pwpconsult.com | American way.          | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA



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