Our national defense, public safety, economic prosperity, and quality of life have long depended on the efficient delivery of essential services -- energy, banking and finance, transportation, vital human services, and telecommunications. The rapid growth and integration of the telecommunications infrastructure has made all of these sectors interdependent, and in the process, created unprecedented risks. CCIPS has long been involved in investigations of cyber-attacks; the entire federal sector is now organizing to address these new threats.
The Department of Justice and the FBI rose to the challenge by creating the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in early 1998. On May 22, 1998, the President issued Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63), which called for the creation of a national plan to protect the services on which we depend daily. NIPC has moved from the FBI into the Department of Homeland Security under the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate.
On February 27, 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection, held at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, in Livermore, California, to announce the formation of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Center is a joint government and private sector partnership, including representatives from the relevant agencies of federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector, to address the daunting challenge of protecting the critical infrastructures on which our nation depends. The NIPC is designated as the national focal point for threat assessment, warning, investigation, and response to attacks on the critical infrastructures. The concept for the NIPC grew out of the Report of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (see section C below) and from the government's experiences in dealing with illegal intrusions into government and private sector computer systems over the last five years. The Attorney General's speech is available via the link below.
You may obtain more information on the NIPC, by accesing their web site via the following link: National Infrastructure Protection Center
On May 22, 1998, President Clinton announced two new directives designed to strengthen the Nation's defenses against terrorism and other unconventional threats: Presidential Decision Directives (PDD) 62 and 63. PDD-63 focuses specifically on protecting the Nation's critical infrastructures from both physical and "cyber" attack. These attacks may come from foreign governments, foreign and domestic terrorist organizations, and foreign and domestic criminal organizations. The NIPC is a part of the broader framework of government efforts established by PDD-63. A Fact Sheet summary and more detailed White Paper on PDD-63 are available through the links below.
On September 7, 2000, Kevin V. Di Gregory, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, testified before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Committee on Commerce, about foreign ownership interests and foreign government ownership interests in the American communications infrastructure. His statement discusses the various policy and law enforcement implications that arise from this issue.
On September 7, 2000, Larry R. Parkinson, General Counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Committee on Commerce, about foreign government ownership of American telecommunications companies. His statement discusses the various policy and law enforcement implications that arise from this issue.