Task force eyes 'early warning' cyber protection.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Security Beat

Private companies and government agencies need "early warning" capabilities to help avert cyber-attacks, said Guy Copeland, vice president of information infrastructure advisory programs at Computer Sciences Corp.

"Corporations have visibility of what is coming at [them] on the net, but they don't have the big picture [to] see operations on networks that can he malicious," he said. "We are working on a system to identify patterns, gathered from individual companies, that give us a warning that something is coming."

Copeland led an early-warning task force at the National Cyber Security Summit held in December in Santa Clara, Calif.

Task force participants were asked to prepare a brief one-page write-up suggesting actions that could be taken to contribute to early warning. That information was compiled into a detailed planning document.

The task force met on Dec. 17 to review its recommendations.

"We got an amazing set of ideas," said Copeland. "We are working on a timeline that results in implementable actions by March 1."

One concern Copeland raised is that...