For those with Internet access, I trust you will find this Presidential
Executive Order of interest and value:
 
Clinton creates Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection
 
15 July 1996]
 
Executive Order 13010 of July 15, 1996
Critical Infrastructure Protection
 
"Certain national infrastructures are so vital that their incapacity or
destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic
security of the United States. These critical infrastructures include
telecommunications, electrical power systems, gas and oil storage and
transportation, banking and finance, transportation, water supply
systems, emergency services (including medical, police, fire, and
rescue), and continuity of government. Threats to these critical
infrastructures fall into two categories: physical threats to tangible
property (``physical threats''), and threats of electronic,
radio-frequency, or computer-based attacks on the information or
communications components that control critical infrastructures (``cyber
threats''). Because many of these critical infrastructures are owned and
operated by the private sector, it is essential that the government and
private sector work together to develop a strategy for protecting them
and assuring their continued operation." -- from the Order.
 
E.O. 13010 goes on to establish a Commission on Critical Infrastructure
Protection, including both government and private sector
representatives, that will establish its objectives within 30 days, will
identify and consult with relevant parties concerned with "critical
infrastructure assurance issues", and will:
 
  a. assess the scope and nature of the vulnerabilities of, and threats
to, critical infrastructures;
 
  b. determine what legal and policy issues are raised by efforts to
protect critical infrastructures and assess how these issues should be
addressed;
 
  c. recommend a comprehensive national policy and implementation
strategy for protecting critical infrastructures from physical and cyber
threats and assuring their continued operation;
 
  d. propose any statutory or regulatory changes necessary to effect its
recommendations; and
 
  e. produce reports and recommendations to the Steering Committee as
they become available; it shall not limit itself to producing one final
report.
 
 
The Commission is to be assisted by an Advisory Committee and will
report to the President through a Principals Committee.  A Steering
Committee will approve the Commission's objectives and approve its
reports.  The Order charters the Commission for twelve months.
 
The Order also establishes an Infrastructure Protection Task Force
(IPTF) within the Department of Justice, chaired by the FBI, to
"increase coordination of existing infrastructure protection efforts in
order to better address, and prevent, crises that would have a
debilitating regional or national impact" while the commission conducts
its analysis and before the administration can act on its
recommendations.  The IPTF is to include at least one full-time member
each from the FBI, the Department of Defense, and the National Security
Agency, and its function is to identify and coordinate existing
expertise, inside and outside of the Federal Government to:
 
  a. provide, or facilitate and coordinate the provision of, expert
guidance to critical infrastructures to detect, prevent, halt, or
confine an attack and to recover and restore service;
 
  b. issue threat and warning notices in the event advance information
is obtained about a threat;
 
  c. provide training and education on methods of reducing
vulnerabilities and responding to attacks on critical infrastructures;
 
  d. conduct after-action analysis to determine possible future threats,
targets, or methods of attack; and
 
  e. coordinate with the pertinent law enforcement authorities during or
after an attack to facilitate any resulting criminal investigation.
 
Cipher readers may recall a report in EI#14 that suggested that the
Justice Department was pressing for a "Cyberspace Defense policy task
force" that would recommend policy within 12 months and a cyberspace
defense "entity".  E.O. 13010 appears to cast its net wider, in that it
addresses water and energy supply and distribution systems,
transportation, emergency services, and continuity of government as well
as telecommunications, banking, and finance.  The IPTF established by
the order could, perhaps, fill the role suggested in the earlier report.
 
 
The full text of E.O. 13010 is available from the U.S. Government
 
(Continued to next message)
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