Tenet suggests limiting the Internet to approved users

Excerpt:
     Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited 
to those who can show they take security seriously, he said... The 
national press, including United Press International (UPI), were 
excluded from yesterday's event, at Mr. Tenet's request, organizers said.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20041201-114750-6381r

Tenet calls for Internet security
By Shaun Waterman
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published December 2, 2004
Former CIA Director George J. Tenet yesterday called for new security 
measures to guard against attacks on the United States that use the 
Internet, which he called "a potential Achilles' heel."
     "I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when 
we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control 
or accountability," he told an information-technology security 
conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to 
governance and control."
     The former CIA director said telecommunications -- and specifically 
the Internet -- are a back door through which terrorists and other 
enemies of the United States could attack the country, even though great 
strides have been made in securing the physical infrastructure.
     The Internet "represents a potential Achilles' heel for our 
financial stability and physical security if the networks we are 
creating are not protected," Mr. Tenet said.
     He said known adversaries, including "intelligence services, 
military organizations and non-state actors," are researching 
information attacks against the United States.
     Within the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security 
has the lead role in protecting the Internet from terrorism. But the 
department's head of cyber-security recently quit amid reports that he 
had clashed with his superiors.
     Mr. Tenet, who retired in July as director of the CIA after seven 
years, warned that al Qaeda remains a sophisticated group, even though 
its first-tier leadership largely has been destroyed.
     It is "undoubtedly mapping vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our 
telecommunications networks," he said.
     Mr. Tenet pointed out that the modernization of key industries in 
the United States is making them more vulnerable by connecting them with 
an Internet that is open to attack.
     The way the Internet was built might be part of the problem, he 
said. Its open architecture allows Web surfing, but that openness makes 
the system vulnerable, Mr. Tenet said.
Posted by Declan McCullagh on Dec 10, 2004