THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                        REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                   IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH LEADERS
                         OF HIGH-TECH INDUSTRY
                    AND EXPERTS ON COMPUTER SECURITY

The Cabinet Room

11:57 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: The room is smaller than it looks on television. (Laughter.) Usually I don't get so many of them coming in, except you guys are -- (laughter.)

Well, first of all, I want to welcome the leaders of the high-tech industry and experts on computer security to this meeting at the White House to talk about how to maximize the promise and minimize the risks to the Internet.

The disruptions at several websites last week highlight how important the Internet has become to our whole way of life in America, and how vulnerabilities at one place on the Net can create risks for all. Our administration has been working for years now to reduce vulnerabilities in government computers and to encourage the private sector to do more.

We know that we have to keep cyberspace open and free. We have to make, at the same time, computer networks more secure and resilient, and we have to do more to protect privacy and civil liberties. And we're here to work together.

Last month I released a draft plan to help do our part to meet these challenges. And in the budget I asked Congress for $2 billion for cyber security, to safeguard government networks, to detect attacks, to hire and train more security experts, to increase cooperation with the private sector. I want to jump-start this effort by providing $9 million right away to begin some of these key initiatives. And so we'll do what we can.

I understand that many leading industry members, including the companies represented here today, have agreed to create a mechanism to share cyber security information, and I applaud that. I am asking Secretary Daley and my Science Advisor, Dr. Neal Lane, and Richard Clarke from the White House, to work with these companies to accelerate our efforts with the private sector.

Now, having said that, and before we open the floor for questions, I'd like to ask Peter Solvik, who is to my right, the senior Vice President and chief information officer of CISCO Systems, to say a few words on behalf of the private sector people who are here today.

Peter.

MR. SOLVIK: Thank you, Mr. President. It is an honor for me to be here to discuss this important issue. First, I want to thank you and your team for working cooperatively with industry to pursue and implement policies that have permitted the astounding growth of the Internet and e-commerce.

Today, Internet, e-commerce, and information technology represent over one-third of the economic growth in the United States. And certainly we're enjoying an unprecedented time of economic growth, expansion and success in the United States. Furthermore, it's estimated that electronic commerce could reach $1.5 trillion by the year 2003. That's why it's more important than ever that we provide a strong and secure foundation for the digital economy.

We're certainly not facing a crisis, but the events of last week show that everyone -- Internet users, Internet companies, and government -- need to work together to strengthen Internet security. I know that you've challenged industry to do our part, and I'm pleased to say that the companies represented here today have joined more than 30 major Internet and information technology companies, as well as 10 industry trade associations, and we've pledged to work together on this issue.

We're committed to increasing the security of the Internet by sharing information on cyber attacks, vulnerabilities, countermeasures, and best practices as a concrete way of improving security of the Internet. We look to government to play an important role by coordinating this activity, ensuring its own systems are secure, and continuing to support important R&D efforts.

Again, I want to thank you for your leadership on this important issue. We're very committed to work together so that the Internet continues to grow and reach its full potential in the 21st century.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q Mr. President, is there such a thing as a plan to actually secure the Internet?

THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Daley says there is. (Laughter.) Let me say, what we're going to try to do today is to talk about what the government's responsibility is for our own systems and networks; what the private sector's responsibility is; and as I said before, how to talk about having adequate security, how to protect privacy and civil liberties, but also how to keep the Internet open.

And keep in mind, one of the reasons this thing has worked so well is that it has been free of government regulation. The only contribution the government made to the Internet was the early research over 30 years ago, now, I guess, is when it started -- '69. And there may be more work for us to do in research here. But I think that, insofar as we can, we ought to stay with what brought us here.

The companies and the sector they represent in this room are about 8 percent of our employment; they do represent, as Peter said, over 30 percent of our growth. And so the trick is going to be how to do what needs to be done on security and privacy, and still keep it flourishing and growing.

But we ought to approach this with determination and we shouldn't be surprised that these things have happened. It's just a replay of what has always happened whenever there's a new way of communicating, a new way of making money throughout human society -- there's always going to be somebody that tries to take advantage of it. And we'll figure out how to deal with it and go on.

Q Mr. President, one issue involved here is the sharing of information, and there are some reports this morning that banks were conscious of efforts to disable their systems, but did not share that information more broadly. Can the government solve that without forcing industry or business to disclose information it would rather keep private?

THE PRESIDENT: I think -- let me tell you what I know about that, and there may be something I don't know, so I will offer that caution at the outset. The Justice Department, the FBI had certain information that they made broadly available, and I think the banks were in better shape to take advantage of that information than others were. And I think one of the purposes of this meeting is to figure what do we do from here forward to make sure that everybody is in the same position.

But I don't think that, based on what I know now, we should be out there finger-pointing at any sector of the economy and what they didn't do. I think that they were just better organized to engage in information sharing and to set up the defenses necessary to guard against this. And what we really want is for every sector of our economy to be in the same position.

Q Mr. President, oil prices have now risen above $30 a barrel. Does that increase a need to do -- is there anything you can do about that? Or are you more sympathetic to arguments toward releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

THE PRESIDENT: I think we have to watch this the next few days. There are going to be some important meetings with the oil producing countries in the next few days and we will know more about this in a week or 10 days about what the trends are going to be.

But the American people are handling the price increase pretty well in terms of every aspect of our lives because of increased energy efficiency, except for home heating oil, where you have, in the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, unfortunately, so many people still dependent upon a source of heating which the rest of the country left long ago, and they are unbelievably burdened by this.

Now, we've released $200 million in LIHEAP funds so far; we can release more. But that eases the burden on the poorest of our citizens, but there are a lot of working people on modest incomes that are just getting killed by this because of their reliance on home heating oil. And I have not closed off any options. I'm monitoring this on a daily basis. It's a deeply troubling thing.

But I think the rest of our country should know -- I mean, a lot of people are feeling the pinch, maybe if they drive long distances, because the price of gasoline has gone up. But there is a group of Americans, middle class and lower-middle-income Americans, who have limited disposable incomes, who have no option to heat their homes but home heating oil. They're the people that are really getting hurt. And I hope -- and, obviously, the poor would be devastated by it, but we're monitoring that daily to make sure we've released enough of the federal funds that we have that go directly to benefit them.

And so this is a daily watch, and we'll just have to see where we are. And I may have more to say as the days go by. But we should know more in a week about what the trend lines are going to be and what's going to happen to the price of oil over the next few month.

Q Mr. President, did the White House deny congressional committees access to e-mails it subpoenaed?

THE PRESIDENT: I believe that we have complied with every request -- and there have been thousands. If the American people knew how much of their money we had to spend complying with requests for paper and e-mails, they might be quite amazed. But we certainly have done our best to do that. There has never been an intentional effort to do that, and I think that we are in full compliance. I believe we are.

That's what Mr. Podesta told me right before we came out.

Q Would you entertain one last question, sir? We've always heard for the last four or five years that it was going to take an electronic Pearl Harbor -- many of the people around this table I've interviewed over the last four or five years and they've agreed that's the kind of impact we would need for everybody to play together and work together. Is that what happened last week?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I hope not. (Laughter.) I think it was an alarm. I don't think it was Pearl Harbor. We lost our Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor -- I don't think the analogous loss was that great. But I think it --

Q Was it of concern --

THE PRESIDENT: Look, it's a source of concern, but I don't think we should leave here with this vast sense of insecurity. We ought to leave here with a sense of confidence that this is a challenge that was entirely predictable; it's part of the price of the success of the Internet; and we're all determined to work together to meet it. And so, yes, we got an alarm, but I wouldn't say -- I wouldn't analogize it to Pearl Harbor.

We're all here; we're going to figure out what to do. But you need to let us work now. Thank you very much.

END 12:07 P.M. EST