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Home President's
NSTAC
The
NSTAC Mission and Key Themes
Meeting our Nation’s critical
national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) challenges demands
attention to many issues. Among these, none could be more important
than the availability and reliability of telecommunication services.
The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory
Committee (NSTAC) mission is to provide the U.S. Government the best
possible industry advice in these areas.
25 Years of Partnership
For over 25 years, the NSTAC has brought together up to 30 industry
chief executives from major telecommunications companies, network service
providers, information technology, finance, and aerospace companies.
These industry leaders provide the President with collaborative advice
and expertise, as well as robust reviews and recommendations. The NSTAC’s
goal is to develop recommendations to the President to assure vital
telecommunications links through any event or crisis, and to help the
U.S. Government maintain a reliable, secure, and resilient national
communications posture.
Beyond the industry collaboration alone, the NSTAC serves as a prominent
model for trusted public/private partnerships, resulting in mutually
beneficial information sharing mechanisms and the implementation of
several programs to reinforce that partnership. One of the NSTAC’s
first efforts recommended the creation of the National Coordinating
Center as an operational arm of the NSTAC, and later, as the Information
Sharing and Analysis Center for the communications sector, where information
relevant to the protection and operation of the communications infrastructure
is shared between industry and Government. Subsequently, the NSTAC also
helped to establish the industry and Government Network Security Information
Exchanges, allowing representatives from the public and private sectors
to share sensitive information on threats to operations, administration,
maintenance, and provisioning systems supporting the telecommunications
infrastructure. The NSTAC recognized that information sharing is a key
component to the industry and Government relationship, tying together
all facets of the NSTAC agenda to provide resilient national telecommunications
services.
Since its inception, the NSTAC has addressed a wide range of policy
and technical issues regarding communications, information systems,
information assurance, critical infrastructure protection, and other
NS/EP communications concerns. In recent years, the Government, with
the support of the NSTAC, addressed new NS/EP challenges caused by several
primary factors: the convergence of traditional and broadband networks;
the changing global threat environment; and the continuing global expansion
of both provider and user communities. In the face of this ever-increasing
complexity of the domestic and global network environment, the NSTAC’s
work, more so than ever, is of vital national importance, and the committee
remains vigilant in aggressively addressing our Nation’s highest
priority NS/EP communications needs.
Throughout the NSTAC’s history, five key themes
continue to emerge as their major areas of focus:
The NSTAC remains committed to providing the best possible
technical information and policy advice to assist the President and other
stakeholders responsible for the critical NS/EP services for our Nation.
Additional information about NSTAC and its reports are available in the
NSTAC Publications section.
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