US unveils cybersecurity plan

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON - THE United States, pushing to promote global Internet freedom, on Tuesday declassified some of its initiatives on safeguarding government networks as it pursues partnerships in the effort.

The move comes as Washington has become more vocal in opposing other governments' censorship of the Internet and presses its argument that Internet access is a basic human right to express and gather online.

The US State Department is planning a meeting on Thursday with tech companies and another will be held in the summer. The move also comes in the wake of Google Inc's announcement in January that it had faced a 'highly sophisticated and targeted attack' in December, allegedly from inside China, and said that it was no longer willing to censor search results in the country as required by Beijing.

To make its cybersecurity efforts more transparent, the White House released some initiatives, which had been classified when they were created in 2008 during the Bush administration. The initiatives include steps to consolidate the government's Internet access to improve security, improve detection and prevent intrusions into government networks and better coordinate federally funded research.

It also seeks to improve sharing of information about incursions between federal agencies, creating a government-wide cyber-counter-intelligence plan and increasing the security of classified networks.

The initiatives also seek to define the government's role for protecting US electrical grids, water supply and other elements of critical infrastructure from cyber attack. The private sector owns and operates an estimated 85 per cent of the nation's critical infrastructure. -- REUTERS