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Despite a six year effort, Netguard, proposed by Senator Wyden, eventually materialized as Public Law No: 115-278 in 2018 as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following prayer:
Blessed are You, Lord God, of heaven and Earth.
In these days of crisis and decision, cover this Nation and this government with Your spirit. Give all Americans discerning hearts, that we may live balanced lives.
Free from fear and prejudice, restrain us from reacting to circumstances around us. Rather, guide each of us to be proactive in determined actions that lead to personal integrity and justice toward others.
As a Nation and as persons, Lord, help us to balance our daily work with quiet reflection and deep conversations of profound listening. May everything we do lead us to deeper and lasting relationships.
As we accept the contradictions and mystery of living in today’s world, may we understand our own limitations and be sensitive to those around us. Let us share our gifts and our burdens with each other at this time when healing interactions are most needed.
By prayer, Lord, enable us to act with determination and be ready to face the consequences of all our actions. If we uproot, help us to plant. When confronted, help us to be patient. May our commitment to both prayer and action in the midst of darkness lead us to the light that comes from You alone, now and forever.
Amen.
EXTENSION OF MORNING BUSINESS
...........EMERGENCY TECHNOLOGY CORPS
Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, this morning I want to discuss a proposal which I think is important in light of the tragic events that unfolded on September 11, 2001.
As all of us now understand, the communications infrastructure in New York, Washington, DC, and indeed the whole country, was severely challenged that day. Wireless telephone networks
were severely overloaded and crashed.
Wireless Internet access was suspended. Telephone lines were cut, and communications for people literally in communities around the east coast of the United States came to a standstill.
Even the immediate communication needs of rescue workers, victims, families, and aid groups were a huge struggle to coordinate. Survivors often couldn’t let family members know they were safe, and families of victims had no immediate central clearinghouse to find information or file missing person reports.
The hospitals were inundated with searches, requests for help, and offers of aid but with no way to match them to each other. Even some of this country’s premier aid organizations that have done such a marvelous job helping rescue workers, survivors, and victims’ families faced immediate and severe challenges with respect to information technology infrastructure. The New York Times drew a conclusion with which I strongly agree. They said:
There needs to be new ways to set up emergency information systems.
That is what I would like to propose this morning. It seems to me that what this country needs is essentially a technology equivalent of the National Guard, an emergency technology guard—I have been calling it in my mind Net Guard, or a national emergency technology guard—that in times
of crisis would be in a position to mobilize the Nation’s information technology, or IT, community to action quickly, just as the National Guard is ready to move during emergencies.
It seems to me that in our leading technology companies in this Nation there are the brains and the equipment to put in place net guard, or this information technology guard, that could be
deployed in communities across the Nation when we face tragedies such as we saw in New York City.
A national volunteer organization of trained and well-coordinated units of information technology professionals from our leading technology companies ought to be in a position to stand at ready with the designated computer equipment, satellite dishes, wireless communicators, and other equipment to quickly recreate and repair compromised communications and technology infrastructure.
NOTE: Netguard never materialized as WYden saw it, by 2018 it had become Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Home Page | CISA
National Emergency Technology Guard - Wikipedia
More News from Calabasas
- Revisiting Comments 25 Years After 9/11/01 - Part 12 Senator Foley spoke on 9/21/01 and related two comments from constituents concerning the tragic events on 9/11/01. Those comments are presented here and a previous post.
- Revisiting Comments 25 Years After 9/11/01 - Part 11 Senator Foley spoke on 9/21/01 and related two comments from constituents concerning the tragic events on 9/11/01. The first comment is here and the second in a separate post.
