Safeguarding The Infrastructure

Talk about vulnerability: Until now, potential terrorists could walk into any large library in the United States and ferret out a wealth of information about vulnerabilities in the nation’s infrastructure.

That’s about to change. Starting February 20, chemical companies, railroads, electric utilities and other parts of the nation's critical infrastructure can begin submitting sensitive information to the Department of Homeland Security about vulnerabilities with the assurance that this proprietary data will be safe from public disclosure.

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2000, material voluntarily submitted by businesses and aimed at helping the government lower the risk of terrorist attack can be classified as sensitive and out of the reach of outsiders.

The measure, however, has garnered its share of critics. They say companies could manipulate this data to avoid enforcement of environmental and health regulations.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at February 19, 2004 08:31 AM | TrackBack