JANET RENO: Thank you. I am pleased to be here today to announce a new partnership between law enforcement and the technology community. We are coming together because we recognize that while technology offers our society great benefits, it also creates great challenges that can only be addressed if we work together.
A decade ago "cybercrime" and "cyberterrorism" didn't really exist outside of Hollywood movies; today they are very real threats. At the same time, we have raised a generation of new computer users, whose ability to utilize powerful technology is not necessarily matched by their understanding of the responsibilities that come with such power.
We cannot allow cyberspace to become the wild west of the information age. But if we are to ensure public safety and responsible computer use, then government, industry and the public must all work together.
Today we are announcing the formation of a "Cybercitizen Partnership," a partnership between the Department of Justice and computer-related industries. This partnership has grown out of several years of conversations between the Department and industry, and a recognition that together we can make a far greater impact than could either sector working on its own.
As a first step in our partnership, I am pleased to announce three initiatives that we will pursue together in the coming months.
First, we will begin a new educational campaign targeting the nation's youth on the appropriate use of computers and the Internet. This media campaign will be designed to educate our youth that the privacy and security values they respect in the physical world are just as important on-line.
All children know that it's wrong to break into their neighbor's house or read their best friend's diary. Unfortunately, fewer realize that its wrong to break into their neighbor's computer and snoop through their computer files. We need kids to understand that hacking is the same as breaking and entering -- that being a hacker doesn't make them "cool" or show their smarts -- it makes them a criminal.
By fostering cyber-ethics and promoting responsible computer use, we can better ensure the privacy and security of all Americans.
Second, we are establishing a personnel exchange program between law enforcement and the computer industry that we believe will help both industry and government serve the public more effectively. Industry candidates will share their expertise in system security with the government, and will learn how the government responds to the growing threats of cyberterrorism and cybercrime.
We in government will send some of our best and brightest to work in industry, to get an inside view of various infrastructures.
These exchanges will also help establish relationships rooted in trust, that will foster a closer and more effective partnership in the future.
Finally, our government-industry partnership will create a directory of computer industry professionals: a "Yellow Pages" of the computer industry. The purpose of this directory will be to provide both law enforcement and industry with a listing of computer professionals where each can find help, whether the help needed is to design a more secure system or locate an expert witness for testimony in a critical case.
For example, agents and prosecutors presently have no easy way to contact experts when they come across difficult technical problems that only the most knowledgeable industry individuals can solve.
With a Yellow Pages in place, law enforcement will know where to turn when they encounter difficult problems.
In the coming months and years I am certain that we will find more ways
to work together. As computers play an ever-increasing role in our lives,
the threats to our security and privacy posed by computer crime will also
grow. I believe that the Cybercitizen Partnership will play a key role
in readying us to respond to that threat.
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