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.
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