There was a fabulous explosion Wednesday during an otherwise typical cyberterror dog-and-pony show on the Hill when House Government Reform Subcommittee Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (Democrat, Illinois) lost her composure during. . .
There was a fabulous explosion Wednesday during an otherwise typical cyberterror dog-and-pony show on the Hill when House Government Reform Subcommittee Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (Democrat, Illinois) lost her composure during a discussion of new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) modifications proposed by the GB Junior Administration as part of its Homeland Defense initiative.

After a couple of hours filled with warnings about widespread infrastructure vulnerabilities and exploitable bugs in numerous control systems, it came time for Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) Director John Tritak and National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) Director Ronald Dick to make the pitch for a controversial exemption from the FOIA applying to all government records submitted by the industry.

The government has been disappointed in the amount of critical information flowing to it from the Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) which the Clinton Administration set up for private-sector vulnerability shoptalk. Industry fears that government records of their incompetence could end up in the hands of outraged citizens and journalists, leading to an unfortunate tarnishing of the sterling reputations enjoyed by the nation's mega-corporations.

Uncle Sam would like to be told more about vulnerabilities and risks and terrorist targets in the real world out there, and is perfectly willing to gut the FOIA if that's what it takes to get brought up to speed.