The Wall Street Journal has reported that “President Bush has promised…an estimated $6 billion to build a secretive system protecting U.S. communication networks from attacks by terrorists, spies and hackers.” Coming from the same government that enlisted the help of communications service providers to unlawfully spy on its own citizens, this plan seems more than a little questionable. Moreover, governments, like most big bureaucracy, tend to be the least effective at countering cyber-threats.
It will be interesting to watch this initiative as it moves forward. At least when it fails to protect against external cyber-threats, the government will have a fairly decent dossier built on the activities of those companies remaining in the U.S.
International Perspectives 