Three very big and very different computer security breaches that have dominated recent headlines did more than show how badly the Internet needs major repairs. They also exposed the huge rift between corporate America and the federal government over who should fix it, cyber-security experts say.
In the last few months, law enforcement officials cracked an international ring that tapped customer databases and trafficked in tens of millions of credit card numbers; a researcher uncovered a major flaw that permits hackers to steer some Web surfers to fake versions of popular websites filled with malicious software; and computer assaults, which some researchers said they had traced back to Russia's state-run telecommunications firms, crippled websites belonging to the country of Georgia.
Yet the episodes did little to boost cyber security higher on the agendas of the federal government or the two major presidential candidates.
"Nothing is happening," said Jerry Dixon, the former director of the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security. "This has got to be in the top five national security priorities."
Dixon is just one of hundreds of technology executives and experts who have been saying for years that Washington needs to do much more to protect consumers, businesses and the government itself from attacks by criminal hackers and those supported by rival nations.
The government has largely argued that the private sector is better suited to tackle the broader problem.
But big corporations say it's too big for them to handle. They say the Internet's technical underpinnings, which are loosely administered by the Commerce Department, need a major overhaul to eliminate vulnerabilities.
Why such a persistent disconnect?
It's partly because cyber security crosses so many lines in the executive branch. Homeland Security oversees protection of government networks, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service pursue cyber crimes. When those cases lead to other countries, the State Department must get involved.
More important, most of the Internet's infrastructure -- the big computers and data pipes through which our bits travel -- is in private hands.
So for years, the government has assembled task forces that call for greater cooperation and communication between the public and private sectors. But experts say the reports have yet to yield tangible results, while the bad guys have become increasingly adept at exploiting new security holes in software and hiding their electronic infiltration from anti-spyware and firewall programs.
