Friday, 23 January 1987 Washington, DC

1. THE ADMINISTRATION'S CALL FOR EARLY DEPLOYMENT OF STAR WARS
was opposed in a Tuesday press conference called by Senators Johnston (D-LA) and Proxmire (D-WI). They were joined by Cornell physicist Kurt Gottfried, representing the Union of Concerned Scientists. As Proxmire wryly noted, the Administration argued last year that a cut in the FY 87 budget request for SDI would delay deployment. The cut was made, and now they have moved it up. In remarks to the Yale Club last week, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who apparently fills in for Reagan as chief-scientist of SDI, explained candidly that quick deployment of a partial SDI system was needed "so it will be in place and not tampered with by future administrations." The Proxmire Amendment, however, passed by the Senate in 1985, provides that no deployment can take place unless the President certifies that the system meets the Nitze criteria of "survivability" and "cost-effectiveness at the margin." Both Houses of Congress must then agree with the President by majority vote.

2. THE FUROR OVER CONTROL OF UNCLASSIFIED SENSITIVE INFORMATION
in computerized data bases (WN 21 Nov 86) is growing. The National Policy on Telecommunications and Information Systems, NSDD 145, issued by the President on 17 Sep 84, states that "the government shall encourage, advise, and, where appropriate, assist the private sector" to protect "sensitive non-government information, the loss of which could adversely affect the national security." One person's "encouragement," however, may be another person's harassment. The Commerce Department, the CIA and the FBI have all sought the names and addresses of users of unclassified data bases from private information companies. The president of one company said "Until you have received cordial visits by representatives of the FBI, the CIA and the DoD, you can't appreciate the true extent of this issue." NASA has even established what it calls a "no-no" list of companies that are to be denied subscriptions to unclassified NASA technical data because they have foreign customers. Behind all of this is a classified Air Force report that reportedly argues that the power of computers to process information poses a threat to national security -- even if the information is unclassified and already in the public sector.

3. THE COMPUTER SECURITY ACT OF 1987 (H.R. 145),
introduced by Reps. Dan Glickman (D-KA) and Jack Brooks (D-TX), will be the subject of hearings before the Government Affairs Committee on 19 Feb 87. The bill would transfer to the National Bureau of Standards the responsibility for assessing the threat to national security posed by unclassified data bases and for establishing standards for computer security. Under NSDD 145 this authority resides with the National Security Agency. The issue is whether a super-secret agency that operates without public scrutiny should involve itself in domestic activities.



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.