The creation of a federal computer-security czar to coordinate government and industry efforts decreases the chance of a crippling attack on U.S. computer systems, say industry officials.

The Bush administration plans to create an Office of Cyberspace Security and to name Richard Clarke, a senior official on the National Security Council, to lead it.

The move demonstrates a government awareness that it must direct more clout and priority toward preparing the country to defend against and respond to attacks on its critical information networks, said Dan Kuehl, professor of information warfare at the National Defense University.

“We depend so much on electronic information. It is just a reflection that cyberwarfare is a global threat,” Kuehl said.

The new office marks a reversal by the Bush administration. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the administration was cool to the idea of naming a computer-security czar for fear of creating another government agency, said Shannon Kellogg, vice president of information security programs for the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va.

Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., who led an unsuccessful bid to reform the U.S. Postal Service in the last congressional session, has unveiled a new reform proposal.

The new effort is receiving generally positive reviews by business and labor groups.

The proposal is still in draft form, posted Sept. 28 on the congressman’s Web site at www.house.gov/mchugh/
hot_postalcrisis.html.

Mailers, unions and other postal stakeholders contacted by this paper have mostly praised the congressman’s draft 2001 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. McHugh’s previous measure, the Postal Modernization Act of 1999, was passed twice by the postal subcommittee, which McHugh chaired until it was eliminated at the start of this congressional session. But that bill never proceeded any further.

“This is dramatically better than the earlier versions,” said Neil Denton, executive director of the Alliance for Nonprofit Mailers, a national coalition headquartered in Washington, D.C. “This is a giant step forward for the mailing community and for the Postal Service.”