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By Declan McCullagh, 1 June 2009 10:57

NEWS

President Obama on Friday said the US government is "not as prepared" as it should be to respond to disruptions caused by computer or internet attacks and announced that a new cyber security co-ordinator position would be created inside the White House staff.

The still-to-be-named co-ordinator will oversee a new bureaucracy tasked with digital infrastructure protection, which had previously been handled by the Department of Homeland Security. "We will ensure that these networks are secure, trustworthy and resilient," Obama said. "We will deter, prevent, detect and defend against attacks and recover quickly from any disruptions or damage."

Obama's announcement came as the president released the outcome of a 60-day review that sought to rethink how the federal government should address cyber security. Business groups had sought to raise cyber security's profile in the administration but remained wary about regulatory mandates from Washington; security hawks would prefer the new bureaucracy to have more authority over the private sector.

The final report represents a political compromise. It suggests "intrusion detection and prevention systems" and "warning of cyber intrusions and attacks", while stressing that collaboration with privacy groups and industry is vital. New laws compelling companies to share more information with the federal government about intrusions may be necessary, it says, but only "as a last resort".

During his remarks in the White House's East Room on Friday, Obama also seemed to seek a balance between warning of the dangers of terrorists or other miscreants using the internet and saying the government will not go too far. "Our pursuit of cyber security will not - I repeat, will not include - monitoring private sector networks or internet traffic," he said.

The report also goes out of its way to recognise the civil liberties concerns that could arise by a greater focus on private networks: the word "privacy" appears no fewer than 69 times in the document.

In a cyber security "crisis", the plan is for the co-ordinator to become the "White House action officer for cyber incident response". That's a similar role to the White House officials who help to monitor terrorist attacks or natural disasters. (The new co-ordinator's fiefdom will be shared between the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.)

While there has been some private grumbling that the new co-ordinator will not report directly to the president - a prized symbol of access in Washington circles - reaction to the administration's announcement was generally positive.

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