NSA Announces Infrastructure Cybersecurity Program
The “Perfect Citizen” program will seek to mitigate cyber attacks on critical infrastructure like power plants, air traffic control systems and the electrical grid, but raises privacy concerns.
By J. Nicholas Hoover InformationWeek July 9, 2010 08:00 AM
The National Security Agency plans to launch a program aimed at detecting and mitigating cyber attacks on critical infrastructure like power plants, air traffic control systems and the electrical grid, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The program, known as “Perfect Citizen,” raises questions about the government’s role in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, what technologies and processes might be used in such an effort, how any such effort would protect critical infrastructure owners’ independence as well as privacy, and whether the effort should be public rather than classified.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the project aims to protect control systems that are often older and thus built without security in mind, but have since been connected to the Internet. The report says that the information collected could also be used for support when third parties call on the NSA for help in investigating cyber attacks.
NSA did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. Perfect Citizen reportedly includes a classified $100 million contract with defense contractor Raytheon Corp, but Raytheon also declined to comment.
via NSA Announces Infrastructure Cybersecurity Program — Cybersecurity — InformationWeek.