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Clinton calls summit to combat cyber attacks

WASHINGTON: President Bill Clinton joined the fight against Internet hackers on Friday, calling a summit of government and industry officials to combat the brazen cyber attacks that this week crippled some of the world's most popular Web sites.

The president disclosed plans for the gathering next week in an interview appearing in three US daily newspapers.

White House officials said, the meeting would bring together more than 15 specialists from the federal government and certain high-tech companies.

The initiative came after such leading Web sites as on-line retailers Amazon. com and Buy. com, along with on-line trading sites Datek and E-Trade and news outlet CNN, suffered attacks that temporarily jammed their networks.

Some of the hackers broke into university computers in California to target Cable News Newtork, the network said on Friday. Quoting "sources familiar with the investigations," CNN said the hackers had tapped into computers at the University of California at Santa Barabara at least twice.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday announced an investigation into the incidents.

But Clinton, speaking to reporters from USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, said he wanted to do more.

"I'm going to bring in some people next week from the private sector and from our government team to talk about what, if anything else, we can do about this.

"I'm concerned about the latest hacking incidents," he said.

"But I think that ... we've gotten all this incredible benefit out of a system that is fundamentally open. And as you know, I've worked hard to keep it unencumbered, to try to make sure that Internet commerce is not unduly burdened by regulation or taxation. And if you have an open system like this, you're going to have continuous guarding against intrusion. And people go where the money is.

"And so my view of this is that this our renewed vigilance to try to deal with cyber-hacking, or even cyber-terrorism is part of the cost of doing business in the modern world ... We've proposed, I think, two billion dollars in (the fiscal year 2001) budget to deal with it."

Among the corporations invited are Yahoo, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, America Online and MCI WorldCom, according to the Wall Street Journal. They are expected to confer with Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, Commerce Secretary William Daley and national security adviser Sandy Berger.

The Journal said, topics for discussion would include corporate cooperation with government law enforcement agencies to protect the Internet, measures to detect and track down hackers and protective steps that can be taken by companies themselves.

Most of the two billion dollars earmarked for Internet security in the new budget is directed toward protecting government security and defense agencies and it is not clear what Washington can do to spur efforts by the private sector. AFP