Plays Well With Others: Enhancing DoD's Role in Protecting the National Information Infrastructure

Abstract

Abstract : The terrorist attacks on the twin trade towers and the Pentagon kindled an immediate, renewed focus on homeland defense, Since then, efforts to combat physical terrorist threats have rightly taken center stage, However, the need to protect our national information infrastructure (NII) from an increasing array of cyber threats is equally urgent, This paper will argue that characteristics of the NII drive DoD to a more active role in its defense, it will then discuss NII protection efforts to date, shortfalls in those efforts, and Canada's emerging NII protection structure as a potential model for the US to adopt, Finally it will argue that DoD should have an expanded and better-defined role in NII defense - not as a playground bully that dominates everything, but as a full-fledged team player in areas where it can best apply its expertise. Virtually everyone agrees that the NII is increasingly important to the operation of all our critical national infrastructures, However, expanded NII use has also opened up a new set of cyber vulnerabilities to both the NII itself and the many users who depend on it, Moreover, the ever-expanding NII presents a challenging set of issues to its defenders, The cyberworld blurs the traditional distinctions among different user communities who all now use the common NII, its compression of time and space blurs the ability to distinguish between crime and acts of war, and compounds the task of determining the source of attack. As a result, lines of responsibility blurred among the law enforcement, military, intelligence, and owner-operator communities. These areas of convergence put a premium on a fully cooperative approach to NII protection.