COMMERCE UNIT DEVELOPING NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY POLICY
Export regulation and enforcement will continue to be core function of Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS), but agency increasingly will take action in areas of cybersecurity and homeland security, Undersecy. Kenneth Juster told Commerce Dept. advisory panel Tues. BIS until last month was known as Bureau of Export Administration. In response to growing national and economic security concerns, BIS this fall will release cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection policy guidelines, Juster told BIS Regulations & Procedures Technical Advisory Committee.
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Recognizing that govt. can’t dictate what privately owned infrastructure operators must do to protect their respective infrastructures, policy document will address how Bush Administration will work with industry to mutually achieve economic and network security goals: “This is a learning process, but since September 11, companies are much more aware of how critical security is to their business.” He said joint effort, which will be spelled out more clearly in policy paper, would “enable us to have a stable system that will endure.” BIS separately will release policy guidance on homeland security, Juster said. Study on setting priorities for maintaining strong domestic defense-technology industry also will be distributed later this year, he said.
Juster said BIS is working with House leadership to draft Export Administration Act similar to bill (S-149) passed by Senate in Sept. 2001. Export law technically expired many years ago, but its powers have been repeatedly sustained through emergency Presidential powers. It establishes Commerce Control list of various technologies and products requiring export licensing. It also provides for National Security Control list, which gives Dept. of Defense and the intelligence community authority over licensing -- or rejection of licensing -- of dual-use items that could be used by foreign military forces. Juster said he was “cautiously optimistic” that House could move such legislation in coming months or at least by end of year.
BIS will publish revised export regulations Thurs. (June 6), updating U.S. position on export controls under Wassanaar Arrangement of 33 participating nations, said Norm LaCroix, acting dir.-Information Technology Controls Div., Office of Strategic Trade & Foreign Policy Controls. Streamlined export rules to be published in Federal Register will clarify export reporting and licensing procedures primarily for encryption technology but also for short-range wireless communications products, he said. Updated export language makes rules “more accessible and understandable to the lay person,” he said.
Regulations affecting wireless products that send transmissions within 100-meter range will be revised, since “there’s some latent confusion” under current rules, LaCroix said. Clarifying language will ensure that all short-range communications devices will be treated as retail and mass market products “regardless of protocol.” That will benefit makers of platforms such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, he said.