[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[February 15, 2000]
[Pages 253-255]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Technology Industry Leaders and Computer
Security Experts and an Exchange With Reporters
February 15, 2000
Internet Security
The President. The room is smaller than it looks on television.
[Laughter] Usually I don't get so many of them coming in, except you
guys are--[laughter].
Well, first of all, I want to welcome the leaders of the high-tech
industry and experts on computer security to this meeting at the White
House to talk about how to maximize the promise and minimize the risks
to the Internet.
The disruptions at several websites last week highlight how
important the Internet has become to our whole way of life in America
and how vulnerabilities at one place on the net can create risks for
all. Our administration has been working for years now to reduce
vulnerabilities in Government computers and to encourage the private
sector to do more.
We know that we have to keep cyberspace open and free. We have to
make, at the same time, computer networks more secure and resilient, and
we have to do more to protect privacy and civil liberties. And we're
here to work together.
Last month I released a draft plan to help do our part to meet these
challenges. And in the budget, I asked Congress for $2 billion for
cybersecurity to safeguard Government networks, to detect attacks, to
hire and train more security experts, to increase cooperation with the
private sector. I want to jump-start this effort by providing $9 million
right away to begin some
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of these key initiatives. And so we'll do what we can.
I understand that many leading industry members, including the
companies represented here today, have agreed to create a mechanism to
share cybersecurity information, and I applaud that. I am asking
Secretary Daley and my Science Adviser, Dr.
Neal Lane, and Richard Clarke from the White House to work with these companies to
accelerate our efforts with the private sector.
Now, having said that and before we open the floor for questions,
I'd like to ask Peter Solvik, who is to my
right, the senior vice president and chief information officer of Cisco
Systems, to say a few words on behalf of the private sector people who
are here today.
Peter.
[At this point, Mr. Solvik made brief remarks.]
The President. Thank you.
Q. Mr. President, is there such a thing as a plan to actually secure
the Internet?
The President. Secretary Daley says there is. [Laughter] Let me say,
what we're going to try to do today is to talk about what the
Government's responsibility is for our own systems and networks, what
the private sector's responsibility is, and as I said before, how to
talk about having adequate security, how to protect privacy and civil
liberties, but also how to keep the Internet open.
And keep in mind, one of the reasons this thing has worked so well
is that it has been free of Government regulation. The only contribution
the Government made to the Internet was the early research over 30 years
ago, now, I guess, is when it started--'69. And there may be more work
for us to do in research here. But I think that, insofar as we can, we
ought to stay with what brought us here.
The companies and the sector they represent in this room are about 8
percent of our employment. They do represent, as Peter said, over 30
percent of our growth. And so the trick is going to be how to do what
needs to be done on security and privacy and still keep it flourishing
and growing.
But we ought to approach this with determination, and we shouldn't
be surprised that these things have happened. It's just a replay of what
has always happened whenever there's a new way of communicating, a new
way of making money throughout human society; there's always going to be
somebody that tries to take advantage of it. And we'll figure out how to
deal with it and go on.
Q. Mr. President, one issue involved here is the sharing of
information. And there are some reports this morning that banks were
conscious of efforts to disable their systems, but did not share that
information more broadly. Can the Government solve that without forcing
industry or business to disclose information it would rather keep
private?
The President. I think--let me tell you what I know about that, and
there may be something I don't know, so I will offer that caution at the
outset. The Justice Department, the FBI had certain information that
they made broadly available, and I think the banks were in better shape
to take advantage of that information than others were. And I think one
of the purposes of this meeting is to figure what do we do from here
forward to make sure that everybody is in the same position.
But I don't think that, based on what I know now, we should be out
there finger-pointing at any sector of the economy and what they didn't
do. I think that they were just better organized to engage in
information sharing and to set up the defenses necessary to guard
against this. And what we really want is for every sector of our economy
to be in the same position.
Oil Prices
Q. Mr. President, oil prices have now risen above $30 a barrel. Does
that increase a need to do--is there anything you can do about that? Or
are you more sympathetic to arguments toward releasing the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve?
The President. I think we have to watch this the next few days.
There are going to be some important meetings with the oil-producing
countries in the next few days, and we will know more about this in a
week or 10 days, about what the trends are going to be.
But the American people are handling the price increase pretty well
in terms of every aspect of our lives because of increased energy
efficiency, except for home heating oil, where you have in the Mid-
Atlantic States and New England, unfortunately, so many people still
dependent upon a source of heating which the rest of the country left
long ago, and they are unbelievably burdened by this.
Now, we've released $200 million in LIHEAP funds so far. We can
release more. But that
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eases the burden on the poorest of our citizens, but there are a lot of
working people on modest incomes that are just getting killed by this
because their reliance on home heating oil. And I have not closed off
any options. I'm monitoring this on a daily basis. It's a deeply
troubling thing.
But I think the rest of our country should know--I mean, a lot of
people are feeling the pinch, maybe, if they drive long distances,
because the price of gasoline has gone up. But there is a group of
Americans, middle class and lower middle income Americans, who have
limited disposable incomes, who have no option to heat their homes but
home heating oil. They're the people that are really getting hurt. And I
hope--and obviously, the poor would be devastated by it, but we're
monitoring that daily to make sure we've released enough of the Federal
funds that we have that go directly to benefit them.
And so this is a daily watch, and we'll just have to see where we
are. And I may have more to say as the days go by. But we should know
more in a week about what the trend lines are going to be and what's
going to happen to the price of oil over the next few months.
Congressional Subpoenas
Q. Mr. President, did the White House deny congressional committees
access to E-mails it subpoenaed?
The President. I believe that we have complied with every request,
and there have been thousands. If the American people knew how much of
their money we had to spend complying with requests for paper and E-
mails, they might be quite amazed. But we certainly have done our best
to do that. There has never been an intentional effort to do that, and I
think that we are in full compliance. I believe we are. That's what Mr.
Podesta told me right before we came out.
Internet Security
Q. Would you entertain one last question, sir? We've always heard
for the last 4 or 5 years that it was going to take an electronic Pearl
Harbor--many of the people around this table I've interviewed over the
last 4 or 5 years, and they've agreed that's the kind of impact we would
need for everybody to play together and work together. Is that what
happened last week?
The President. Well, I hope not. [Laughter] I think it was an alarm.
I don't think it was Pearl Harbor. We lost our Pacific Fleet at Pearl
Harbor; I don't think the analogous loss was that great. But I think
it----
Q. Was it of concern?
The President. Look, it's a source of concern, but I don't think we
should leave here with this vast sense of insecurity. We ought to leave
here with a sense of confidence that this is a challenge that was
entirely predictable. It's part of the price of the success of the
Internet, and we're all determined to work together to meet it. And so,
yes, we got an alarm, but I wouldn't say--I wouldn't analogize it to
Pearl Harbor.
We're all here. We're going to figure out what to do. But you need
to let us work now.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at 11:57 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Richard A. Clarke, Special
Assistant to the President and National Coordinator for Transnational
Threats, National Security Council. The President also referred to
LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The transcript
released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks
of Peter Solvik. A tape was not available for verification of the
content of these remarks.