Information Warfare/Information Assurance

Project Chair: William H. Webster
Project Director: Arnaud de Borchgrave
Task Force Chair: Pat Gallagher, NSA (ret.)
Task Force Director: Frank J. Cilluffo, CSIS
Task Force Assistant: Stephanie M. Lanz, CSIS

Modern societies have eagerly embraced information technologies -- capitalizing on the many economic, societal and military opportunities they offer. This electronic web (composed of computers, information systems, and the underlying infrastructure that links them together) permeates virtually every aspect of our daily lives and continues to grow at near-exponential rates. Unfortunately, there is also a dark-side. Along with the clear benefits come risks. Our dependence coupled with the availability of advanced technologies and information warfare techniques leave us vulnerable to both electronic and physical attacks that may impact national and economic security and emergency prepared.

America's adversaries recognize this dependency and are developing weapons of mass disruption. In his commencement address to the Naval Academy in May, 1998, President Clinton outlined the magnitude of the information warfare threat and revealed that "Intentional attacks against our critical systems are already underway."

In a government-industry partnership effort, the task force is assessing the threats to, and interdependencies and vulnerabilities of, our most critical infrastructures (including telecommunications, electric power, finance and banking, transportation and emergency services).

Adding to the challenge from a defensive perspective, is that information warfare can be pursued across the spectrum of conflict, from nations to terrorists to organized crime to disgruntled employees to 14 year old ‘hackers.' Currently the U.S. does not have the capability to determine whether the source of a particular intrusion was a foreign intelligence service or a teenager, or perhaps a teenager unwittingly doing the bidding for someone with more hostile intentions. As information warfare extends the battlefield to incorporate all of society, U.S. adversaries increasingly view computers as a target, tool and a weapon. For terrorists, information warfare offers a means to deny service and maximize disruption; for criminals computer intrusion techniques can be exploited for fraud, theft, espionage and abuse.

The task force is addressing a range of legislative, technological, and organizational recommendations and processes to better protect information systems, mitigate risks, and minimize the potential impact of hostile attacks upon our critical infrastructures. Task force findings can be found below.

Information Warfare/Information Assurance Membership

Lara Baker, Galaxy Computer Systems Inc.
Stewart Baker, Steptoe & Johnson
Tom Baxter, New York Federal Reserve
Al Bayse, Oakridge National Laboratory Office
Jeff Benjamin, National Intelligence Council
Douglas Bigelow, America On Line
Roger Callahan, U.S. Department of Defense
Robert Carpenter, Advanced Information Strategies Inc.
Mark Centra, National Communications Systems
Jim Christy, Information Protection Task Force
Guy Copeland, Computer Science Corp.
Kenneth de Graffenried, National Security Research
Dorothy Denning, Georgetown Univeristy
Thomas Firnhaber, FinCEN
Marty Ferris, U.S. Department of Treasury
Curt Gergely, Booz-Allen & Hamilton
Capt. William Gravell, Joint Chiefs of Staff (J6K)
Capt. Brent Greene, President's Commission on CIP
John Grimes, Raytheon E-Systems
Patricia Hammer, U.S. Department of Transportation
Mike Higgins, SAIC
David Jones, President's Commission on CIP
David Keyes, Federal Bureau of Investigation
John Kimmins, Bellcore
Hank Kluepfel, SAIC
Ltc. Bernard Krauss, DISA
William Marlow, SAIC
Lynn McNulty, RSA
George Mitchell, Data Protection Solutions
Robert Mullen, Independent Consultant
Capt. Richard O'Neil, U.S. Department of Defense (C3I)
Rodger Pajak, U.S. Department of Treasury
John Parks, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Peter Probst, U.S. Department of Defense (SO-LIC)
Rich Ress, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Jim Savage, U.S. Secret Service
Glen Schlarman, OMB
Jim Settle, Federal Bureau of Investigation (ret.)
James Steckert, U.S. Department of Defense
Peter Tasker, MITRE Corp.
Rick Tracy, Telos Corp.
Michelle Van Cleave, Feith & Zell
Linton Wells II, Deputy to the USD for Policy
Dr. Daniel Wiener II, Unisys Federal Systems Division
Joan Winston, Trusted Information Systems
John Wood, Telos Corp.
Stanley Young, Defense Intelligence Agency