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Home President's
NSTAC Meetings September
1998 1998
NSTAC Workplan
1998 NSTAC
Workplan
The Nation’s economic vitality, common defense,
and overall welfare rely on a collection of infrastructures that
are increasingly dependent on telecommunications and information
systems. The growing integration of communications systems and interdependencies
among infrastructures creates not only the potential for greater
robustness of essential operations, but also increased vulnerabilities.
Additionally, the Nation's information infrastructure and essential
support systems are increasingly at risk to electronic intrusion
and attack.
In its advisory role to the President, the National
Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) provides
industry-based analyses and policy recommendations on information
assurance, infrastructure protection, and a range of other national
security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) telecommunications issues.
The NSTAC partnership with Government also fosters critical information
exchange that benefits the public and private sectors as the Nation’s
telecommunications and information infrastructures evolve.
In preparation for the 21st NSTAC meeting, the NSTAC’s
Industry Executive Subcommittee (IES) will take action in five priority
areas:
- Infrastructure Protection
- Network Security
- Telecommunications Reform
- National Coordinating Mechanism
- Outreach.
The work plan is based on deliberations from the NSTAC
XX meeting, guidance from the Executive Office of the President,
and consideration of ongoing issues of national importance.
Infrastructure Protection. The protection of key public
and private elements of the Nation’s information infrastructure
from exploitation, degradation, and denial of service is essential
to national security. The NSTAC will continue to identify and assess
information assurance risks associated with the Nation’s critical
infrastructures. The NSTAC will:
- Investigate critical infrastructure protection
issues
- Sponsor a 2nd Transportation Information Workshop
to complete the information assurance risk assessment of the transportation
infrastructure
- Examine inter-infrastructure/national coordinating
mechanism (NCM) issues at the transportation workshop by including
representatives from the telecommunications, electric power and
financial services industries
- Examine other pertinent issues such as research
and development (R&D) at the workshop
- Consider the recommendations of President’s
Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) and follow-on
activities
- Frame the NS/EP implications of and issues associated
with electronic commerce (EC)
- Analyze the cyber security risks of EC
- Continue efforts to develop a joint industry-law
enforcement dialog on cyber security issues
- Consider the potential NS/EP implications of related
issues
- Assess Global Information Infrastructure developments
to identify NS/EP issues
- Assess the status of the World Trade Organization
Basic Telecommunications Services Agreement
- Assess Global Mobile Personal Communications by
Satellite Memorandum of Understanding developments.
Network Security. The NSTAC will investigate public
network vulnerabilities, focusing on the potential for widespread
outages, R&D in network security technologies, the exchange
of network security information, and overall network security policy.
The NSTAC will:
- Complete work on the NSTAC’s widespread telecommunications
outage study
- Clarify the conclusions of the report
- Investigate how technology-related vulnerabilities
can cause or influence a widespread outage
- Assess the plans and mechanisms for intercarrier
and industry-Government coordination to respond to a widespread
telecommunications outage
- Examine the possibility of a widespread Internet
outage, or service integrity degradation, caused by the failure
of network routing and control mechanisms. [(Apply lessons learned
from the Public Switched Network (PSN)]
- Assess Year 2000 issues associated with NS/EP telecommunications
- Industry R&D Exchange
- Plan and conduct R&D exchange
- Determine the feasibility of a long-term R&D
consortium
- Help devise a long-term R&D strategy on infrastructure
protection
- Promote the exchange of information between industry
and Government regarding network vulnerabilities and threats and
network security solutions
- Update the risk assessment of the public network.
Telecommunications Reform. The NSTAC will identify
and address the critical NS/EP issues that develop as a result of
the implementation of telecommunications legislation and other related
legislative, regulatory, and judicial actions. The NSTAC will:
- Examine options to enhance communications on NS/EP
matters between and among industry, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), and other relevant Government organizations
- Consider how the role of the FCC Defense Commissioner
can be further adapted to enable carrying out NS/EP responsibilities
in a timely and efficient manner
- Investigate the need for a NS/EP industry advisory
body to the FCC on NS/EP telecommunications issues
- Document the intergovernmental relationships between
the FCC, the National Communications System, and the Office of
Science and Technology Policy regarding NS/EP responsibilities
- Continue to assess the implementation of the Network
Reliability and Interoperability Council’s (NRIC) recommendations
regarding National Services
- Study the feasibility of defining NS/EP telecommunications
programs as National Services
- Monitor NRIC activities for their potential impact
on NS/EP telecommunications programs and requirements
- Review the final report of the PCCIP for potential
legislative and regulatory implications for NS/EP telecommunications
- Continue to assess the implications of Telecommunications
Act of 1996 implementation on NS/EP telecommunications
- Assist in preparing outreach materials for NS/EP
telecommunications programs
- Monitor the progress of wireless telecommunications
priority access initiatives (e.g., Cellular Priority Access Service).
National Coordinating Mechanism. The ability of the
United States to effectively respond to NS/EP situations is heavily
dependent upon a robust information infrastructure and coordinated
emergency response. To protect the Nation’s critical infrastructures
from electronic threats, partnerships must be developed between
private sector infrastructure owners and operators and public sector
users. The NSTAC will:
- Refine the concept of an NCM
- Explore and identify linkages within Government
and between critical infrastructures
- Solicit Government participation to develop the
NCM process
NCS member departments and agencies
White House/PCCIP Transition Team
- Develop standardized intrusion incident information
reporting criteria for the National
- Coordinating Center for Telecommunications (NCC)
- Work with the Office of the Manager, National Communications
System (OMNCS), and the
- Manager of the NCC to implement the intrusion incident
processing pilot
- Utilize "Draft NCC Intrusion Incident Reporting
Criteria and Format Guidelines" to develop final guidelines
- Assess emergency communications capabilities in
the context of U.S. counterterrorism policy concerning nuclear,
biological, and chemical (NBC) materials
- Monitor OMNCS and industry participation in the
telecommunications disaster planning aspect of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency NBC study.
Outreach. The NSTAC provides a model framework for
joint Federal Government/industry cooperation. The NSTAC will share
its lessons learned with a variety of public and private sector
organizations and will work with senior administration officials
to increase awareness of infrastructure protection, network security,
telecommunications reform, and national coordinating mechanism issues.
The NSTAC will:
- Communicate with senior administration officials
to increase the level of National infrastructure protection
- Work with National Security Council, as requested,
to implement the PCCIP report recommendations
- Monitor any Information Systems Security Board
related activity
- Stand ready to assist the electrical power industry
to help form an NSTAC-like body
Published for internal information use by the National Communications
System. Parenthetical entries are speaker/author notes; bracketed
entries are editorial notes. This material is in the public domain
and may be reprinted without permission.
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