Eleven of the nation's top computer security companies are forming a new organization to lobby on cyber-security issues in Washington, breaking ranks with the broader technology industry in hopes that a more cooperative approach to protecting the nation's critical information infrastructure will avert heavy-handed regulation by Congress and the White House. Leaders of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) stress that they remain wary of any government effort to regulate security practices. They are, however, willing to concede that some requirements, perhaps developed under existing federal laws, could improve computer security practices without foisting onerous mandates on businesses. . . .
Eleven of the nation's top computer security companies are forming a new organization to lobby on cyber-security issues in Washington, breaking ranks with the broader technology industry in hopes that a more cooperative approach to protecting the nation's critical information infrastructure will avert heavy-handed regulation by Congress and the White House.

Leaders of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) stress that they remain wary of any government effort to regulate security practices. They are, however, willing to concede that some requirements, perhaps developed under existing federal laws, could improve computer security practices without foisting onerous mandates on businesses.

That concession marks a departure from the technology industry's traditional anti-regulatory philosophy and signals an attempt by the computer security community to speed up efforts to implement a White House-sponsored plan to secure the nation's electronic communications networks.

"Rather than saying to Congress, 'This is not an issue, stay out,' we as an industry need to figure out how to solve these problems in a proactive way before someone gets fed up and says it's time to legislate," said Sanjay Kumar, the chief executive of Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates and a leading figure in the new organization.

One of the first tasks on the alliance's agenda is to develop common standards for reporting and sharing information on the latest Internet security threats. A presidential commission report submitted to the White House earlier this month found that the anti-virus software vendors often create public confusion by giving different names and threat levels to the same computer viruses and worms.

Richard Clarke, the former White House adviser who led the drafting of the White House's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, said the spate of worms and viruses that plagued the Internet in 2003 put added pressure on the security industry to take action.

"Last year was the worst in history in terms of the damage from cyber-attacks," Clarke said. "I think we're getting to the point where Congress wants something to happen, the people and American corporations that buy information technology want something to happen, and so having the technology security industry organized to be part of that debate makes a lot of sense."

The link for this article located at WashingtonPost is no longer available.