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Blaster Worm Experiences, Mission Review, NCS Manager Designee Highlight October Committee of Principals Meeting

Arlingtion, VA., October 30, 2003 - Experiences with the Blaster Worm, updates on NCS emergency communications programs, and the introduction of new NCS Manager highlighted today’s meeting of the National Communications System (NCS) Committee of Principals (COP) here at the NCS headquarters.
The NCS Committee of Principals consists of 23 senior government telecommunications representing Federal operational, policy, regulatory, and enforcement organizations. As an interagency group, it serves as a forum for members to review, evaluate, and present views and recommendations on current or prospective NCS programs to the Manager, NCS, the Executive Agent (the Secretary of Homeland Security), and the Executive Office of the President (EOP).
Pending approval from Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Mr. Robert P. Liscouski, Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, will become Manager of the NCS and become chair of the committee. In chairing his first session, Mr. Liscouski told the committee that their responsibilities are “critical to the DHS mission, and reinvigorating the COP is a top priority so that it can provide real value to the DHS and the larger national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) community.”

VA Blaster Worm Overview

One of the feature subjects of this session was when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) principal briefed committee members on VA’s recent experiences with Blaster Worm and its ongoing investigation. In briefing the committee, Mr. Edward Meagher, VA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information, said his department is still investigating why its computer infrastructure was so seriously affected by the worm. In briefing the committee, Mr. Meagher wanted to share the lessons learned from the VA’s experience with the Blaster Worm so other NS/EP agencies could avoid similar problems.

Noting that that the Department of Veteran Affairs is the largest civilian agency in the Federal Government, Mr. Meagher told the committee that the VA has more than 300,000 personal computers on its network. Despite spending significant amounts of money annually on the VA Computer Incident Response Center (CIRC), Mr. Meagher said the VA did not have effective command and control in place to deal with the effects of the Blaster Worm.

Because of the impact made by the Blaster Worm, Mr. Meagher shared insights gained through this experience. Those insights include being able to identify computers lacking security patches and remove them from its network without disabling other functions. He said the Department also realized that a separate Security Operations Center and a Network Operations Center was ineffective. To improve effectiveness, he said VA management decided to combine the two into a single Network Security Operations Center.

Finally, Mr. Meagher recommended that the COP analyze the national infrastructure networks on which the Government operates to apply the lessons learned from the VA. He suggested that the COP encourage open discussion methods to address situations like what the VA experienced.

NCS Activities

In his NCS update, NCS Deputy Manager Brent Greene praised the success of Government Emergency Telecommunication System (GETS) operations during the August 2003 power outage that affected both the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. During the incident, Mr. Greene said that GETS experienced a 91 percent success rate in call completion, allowing senior Government and critical infrastructure personnel with reliable emergency wireline communications. However, Mr. Greene indicated that data measuring the success of Wireless Priority Service (WPS) is still unclear because the only available information is call attempts -- not call completions. Mr. Greene said that because WPS is not yet operating at full operational capability (FOC), the service was not end-to-end -- meaning that not all affected areas had access to WPS or a link to other services, such as GETS. “This incident illuminated the fact that greater customer knowledge of WPS, including the effects and implications of initial operating capability and FOC, is warranted,” he said.

Aside from the blackout, Mr. Greene said that usage rates for the various emergency communications services such as GETS and WPS have grown tremendously, especially at the State and municipal levels. He said that great opportunities exist for further engaging those entities, pending guidance from the Executive Office of the President. This drew a comment from Mr. Liscouski, who said the August 2003 power outage demonstrates that State and local governments must be further engaged and knowledgeable with respect to emergency communication products and services.

The committee listened to a briefing on the NCS One-Stop Shopping Services (OSSS), a program that provides NCS customers with a central point of contact for all NS/EP priority communications services. Air Force Lt. Col. Joanne Sechrest of the NCS Critical Infrastructure Protection Division briefed the principals on how OSSS manages and supports the consolidated operations and user missions and functions. These programs include GETS, WPS, the Telecommunications Service Priority program, the Emergency Notification Service (ENS) pilot program, the Shared Resources High Frequency (SHARES) Radio Program, and the National Coordinating Center watch.

Lt. Col. Sechrest said the OSSS goal is to manage and support the consolidated operations/user support missions and functions of all NCS service/programs in an efficient and effective manner and to provide NCS users/customers with a single-focus point to obtain services and information.

In other business, Mr. Mark LeBlanc from the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) explained the role of the OSTP in continuity of operations (COOP) and related NS/EP programs. The committee also heard from Mr. David Barron, BellSouth’s Industry Executive Subcommittee (IES) representative to the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee’s (NSTAC). Mr. Barron, who serves as the IES Working Session Vice Chair, provided an update on current NSTAC activities, including an overview of the telecommunications industry’s interest in and need to work with and engage personnel from the Government in ensuring secure NS/EP communications.

Committee Refresher

As a result of the NCS transition to DHS and the pending announcement of a new NCS Manager, the COP has been in recess since January of 2003. Since that time, new members have joined the COP and its subordinate Council of Representatives (COR). Mr. Carl Smith, General Counsel for the Defense Information Systems Agency, provided new and veteran members of the COP and COR with a review of the NCS mission statement.

Mr. Smith reminded the principals that their purpose is to provide comments and recommendations to the NCS, Homeland Security Council, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the NCS Manager. They are responsible for performing any other duties that may be assigned by the President or his authorized designee.

He added that committee serves to report or explain telecommunications plans and programs serving NS/EP objectives and provide a forum for views, information, and recommendations concerning NS/EP programs.

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