U.S. to Intensify Effort Against Threat of Computer Terrorism

The Bush administration confirmed Monday that it will spend $10 million to launch a newly intensive war against cyber-terrorism, which many government officials and terrorism experts consider a serious threat to national security with the potential for causing mass confusion and loss of life.

As evidence of the new emphasis on high-tech terrorism, the White House is expected to announce today the creation of a “cyber-security” office.

“Cyberspace,” said one Bush administration official, “is our next battlefield. And the president has concurred that we need to be better prepared for it.”

President Bush will appoint Richard Clarke, the longtime coordinator of security, infrastructure protection and counter-terrorism for the National Security Council, to the position of special advisor to the president for cyberspace security. Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wayne Downing will be appointed deputy national security advisor and “national director for combating terrorism,” administration officials said.

Specifically, Clarke will work to improve computer security at federal agencies and in private industry, while Downing will coordinate the cyberspace office’s intelligence and military resources. The two men will operate under the newly created Homeland Security office, a Cabinet-level post headed by former Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas J. Ridge.

Along with other counter-terrorism experts, Clarke has long stressed that a computer-based attack could result in widespread death and destruction as terrorists use laptops, the Internet and other high-tech tools to take down power grids, communications networks and other parts of the so-called critical infrastructure.

Jeffrey A. Hunker, President Clinton’s senior director for protection of critical infrastructure at the National Security Council, described cyber-terrorism Monday as “a ticking time bomb.”

Many of the hijackers, who crashed four planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, are believed to have used the Internet--often in public cafes and electronics stores--to communicate without being detected by traditional law enforcement methods such as telephone wiretaps.

Authorities are also investigating whether another suspected terrorist detained in Minnesota, Habib Zacarias Moussaoui, downloaded information from the Internet about crop dusting as part of a conspiracy to spray biological or chemical poisons on communities.

And the FBI, the CIA and counter-terrorism authorities in Europe and elsewhere have reported an alarming rise in the use of computer systems and the Internet by terrorist cells.

Federal authorities say that some hackers have downloaded national security and military secrets, while others have tried to spread viruses that could disable government, military or commercial computer networks.

Some religious extremists have plotted attacks through encrypted e-mails and hidden Web sites. And still more have used such high-tech tools to recruit conspirators, spread messages of hate and disseminate information on how to build bombs, poison crowds and otherwise wage war against the U.S. and its allies, authorities say.

A co-conspirator of convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam testified that the would-be millennium bomber told him to “bring a laptop” to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan run by Osama bin Laden.

Hunker, the former National Security Council cyber-terrorism expert, said an attack could be launched against the United States by one person at a computer terminal 1,000 miles away.

With some fairly basic hacking skills and a telephone, a terrorist could phone a dozen radio stations and falsely announce that an anthrax aerosol had been released in New York’s Grand Central Station, and then disable the computer networks that run the power supply and police and fire communications.

“With people running everywhere and police not knowing what to do, the resulting panic would result in a lot of loss of life and do what terrorists are trying to do, which is spread uncertainty and fear in the U.S. population,” Hunker said.

Larry Irving, who worked with Clarke in the Clinton administration, said Clarke has “thought about these security issues more than most, and he’s smart and experienced.”

Irving said Clarke’s first move will probably be to secure additional funding so that he can determine the government’s weaknesses and then enlist industry and government to “close the back doors” to the nation’s computer and telecommunications networks to hackers and terrorists.

Since January, White House officials have been reviewing a plan for protecting the nation’s water supply, power grids, communications links and other critical infrastructure systems. But in recent months, federal officials have become increasingly concerned about terrorist use of computer technology.

The campaign against cyber-terror is likely to be long and arduous. A study last year by the General Accounting Office found widespread deficiencies in computer security at agencies ranging from the Interior Department to the Treasury Department.

Some experts warned Monday that efforts to prevent cyber-terrorism should not eclipse traditional counter-terrorism efforts.

“The government certainly needs to take steps to get up to speed to the technology that the bad guys have, but this attack on the World Trade Center was a low-tech crime that really did not involve cyber-technologies to any great degree,” said Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. “One hopes that we are not engaging in a case of misplaced blame by pinning things on the Internet.”