"The excitement of the breakneck pace of technology masked the danger in which we were placing ourselves. Without realizing it, a bulk of this nation's tangible wealth was being moved to the contents of a computer's memory. We took those first steps toward computerization hesitantly; we didn't trust the computer. It was unfamiliar, foreign, alien. But when we embraced the computer, we unquestioningly entrusted it with out most precious secrets.
"Unlike the factory though, with the fence, the gates, the dogs, the alarms and the night guards, we left our computers unprotect- ed. Growing bigger and faster computers took precedence over protecting their contents.
"We were warned, many times. But, as I said earlier, neither your government nor its constituency heeded the warnings with enough diligence. Protection of government information became a back-burner issue, a political hot cake, that in budget crunches, was easy to overlook. Overclassification of information became the case of the 'The Spy Who Cried Wolf.' The classification system has been abused and clearly does not serve us well. At my direction it will receive a thorough overhaul.
"Personal privacy has been ignored. Your government is in pos- session of huge amounts of data and yet there is no effort at protecting the non-classified privacy of individuals in our computers.
"The private sector faces another dilemma. The unresponsiveness of the Federal Government to the protection of its own informa- tion did not set a good example for industry, and their comput- ers, too, remained vulnerable.
The President paused from reading his speech to pour a glass of ice water.
"Nothing can stop the fact that the United States is under at- tack. Nothing can change the fact that the attack cannot be turned away. And nothing can change the fact that America will suffer significant disruptions and inconvenience for some time. But we can minimize the damage. We can prepare for the inevita- ble obstacles we will face.
"The poison that Mr. Homosoto put into the American information society is the equivalent of electronic biological warfare. He has senselessly and vengefully struck out against the United States in a manner that I describe as an act of war.
"In order to deal with this real threat to the security of the United States of America, I have taken several steps that are designed to assist in weathering the storm.
"First, I am assigning the Director of the National Security Agency to coordinate all efforts at defending against and mini- mizing the effects of the current crisis. The NSA has the expe- rience and resources, and the support of this President to manage an operation of this complexity and importance. In addition, representatives from GCHQ in the United Kingdom and other ITSEC members from Germany, France and Holland will coordinate European defensive strategies.