Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: DAVID@SIMSC.BITNET (David Bridge, MSC VAX System Manager) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Report calls for National Conputer Security Standards Message-ID: <0010.9012071952.AA18950@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 7 Dec 90 12:26:00 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 39 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu (Cross posted to Security-L, Virus-L, and Ethic-L). This is only some key points from the story. Front page story, Washington Post, December 6, 1990 (cont. on page 11). "Computers Vulnerable, Panel Warns Networks Susceptible to hackers, accidents. "American's increasingly computerized society will become dangerously vulnerable to attacks by criminals and high-tech terrorists unless new nationwide computer security precautions are taken soon, a National Research Council committee announced yesterday." ... "The committee's 18-month study, released yesterday [December 5 ?], calls for adoption of broad new national standards for hardware and software safety, reliability and security measures. It also urges the creation of a nonprofit foundation to oversee and monitor compliance. These steps are necessary, committee members warned, because more individual personal computers are "networked" into nationwide systems, because a "quantum leap in computer literacy" has enabled more people to create computer weapons,..." "The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun," the report said. "Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb." ... "The report recommends six immediate "key actions", including the adoption of "general accepted system security principles" analogous to the national standards now used in accounting and building construction." ...more ======================================================================== The chairman of the 16-person panel is/was David Clark of MIT. Does anyone have the full title of the report and length ? Where can a copy of the report be obtained ? (address, cost, etc.) David Bridge Smithsonian Institution BITNET: DAVID@SIMSC