In a speech to Congress and the nation last Thursday, President Bush announced the creation of a new Office of Homeland Defense that will be charged with coordinating much of the nations anti-terrorism effort. Bush named Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge to head the new agency.
Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., urged that "members of Congress with a concern about cyber terrorism and cyber security meet with [Ridge] and discuss this issue as soon as possible."
One of four chairs of the bipartisan Internet Caucus, Goodlatte made his comments following an electronic security briefing on Capitol Hill on Friday.
Although many lawmakers have been focused on shoring up the nations physical defenses following last Tuesdays deadly terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Goodlatte said that electronic attacks pose an even "bigger threat" to the United States political and economic security.
Targeted electronic attacks on the nations core financial networks, utilities networks and telecommunications systems have the potential to wreak more havoc than do bombs and conventional weapons, Goodlatte said, predicting that caucus members would be successful in including Internet-security measures in any sort of national discussion on preventing terrorism.
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, an Internet Caucus member who also spoke at Fridays briefing, stressed the importance of Internet security as a part of terrorism preparedness.
"It is still vitally important that we pay attention to how vulnerable we are in the Internet and information age," Bennett said
David McGuire, Newsbytes
