Government to Boost Its Computer Security

The Clinton administration is planning to create a government-wide security network to protect the nation’s most important computer systems from hackers, thieves, terrorists and hostile countries. Civil liberties groups complain that the security tools also would make possible unprecedented electronic monitoring, especially because of the increasingly widespread use of computers by the government in almost every aspect of its citizens’ daily lives. The 148-page proposal describes building an elaborate network of electronic obstacles, monitors and analyzers to watch for potentially suspicious activity. The target for completion would be May 2003.