CEOlink

Thu Mar 14 03:18:14 UTC 2002

On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Sean Donelan wrote:

:http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175172.html
:  Leaders of the nation's largest corporations are designing a new
:  communications network that would alert them immediately to a terrorist
:  attack and enable them to instantly talk with one another and government
:  officials about how to respond.

I get threat updates a few times a day from various sources as a part of 
my job, and what I have noticed is that the most valuble updates are the
ones where someone has put a few hours worth of analysis into them. 

>From this article, the value of this service is a central point of 
co-ordination, not unlike CERT, FIRST or (I think) the NIPC at the FBI. 

Nanog is actually a pretty effective forum for these issues as, it
is an ongoing way of maintaining connections between decision makers
and subject matter experts.  

:Interesting idea.  It would be nice if ISPs also had a way to
:instantly talk with one another.
:http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/infrastructure/comments/Donelan.htm

What if someone were to offer one of those CNN satellite video terminals
at a reasonable rate with a package including a sat/cell phone, conference
bridge numbers, with alternates and backups etc..? 

The service would have to be offered by someone with the credibility to 
assess threats, and be able to co-ordinate response once subscribers
started calling in.  It is one thing to get people on the phone, it
is another to co-ordinate emergency management strategy with people 
who are busy, don't have security expertise, and may not have been
briefed on the complexity of the situation.  

Personally, I think the NIPC is probably the only group with the mandate
and access to expertise neccesary for something like this for the ISP
and telcom world, outside the industries themselves.  

Could a service like this could sustain itself profitably? 

Could a private industry consortium have broad enough influence to 
be effective? 

This is a complicated issue. Maybe I'm off base, but Nanog is actually
really good. Combined with Bugtraq, Incidents, and a virus alert service, 
Nanog plays a vital role. Their only limitation is that they are on the
Internet. :)

--
batz