As the Bush Administration prepares to release the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the IT industry continues to resist efforts to include technology mandates or regulations. Not all members of the nation's critical infrastructure sectors are equally resistant to the federal . . .
As the Bush Administration prepares to release the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the IT industry continues to resist efforts to include technology mandates or regulations. Not all members of the nation's critical infrastructure sectors are equally resistant to the federal government dictating standards, however.

This afternoon, the President's advisor on cyberspace, Richard Clarke, heard from top-level IT industry executives, who emphasized that the government should promote security through its purchasing power rather than through mandates. Thirty chief executives from all critical infrastructure sectors make up the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which is providing suggestions on the strategy.

"When it's all said and done, the government has a huge, huge lever in its purchasing power," John Thompson, chairman and CEO of Symantec Corp., said in a teleconference with the advisory group today. "We should encourage the government to settle on a set of standards for their own use, but not dictate a set of standards."

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