Experts disagree on how Congress can help IT security

WASHINGTON - A U.S. House of Representatives member proposed Thursday that the U.S. Congress require every computer in the U.S. to have antivirus software installed, but IT security experts disagreed with that suggestion and other ways for the government to encourage cybersecurity among private companies and individual users.

Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican, questioned during a hearing if Congress should require antivirus software to be installed on every U.S. computer to counter the billions of dollars in damage done by viruses and worms in 2003 alone.

"Is it time for the federal government to develop some kind of Internet security agency that would develop standards for all legitimate software, require automatic update and patching and establish a base level for every single computer in the country?" Bass said during a hearing on computer viruses in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee and Telecommunications and the Internet. "Is there any reason why any computer in this country shouldn't have some kind of antivirus software on it as a requirement?"

No such reason exists, answered Art Wong, vice president of security response for antivirus software vendor Symantec Corp., prompting some laughs from the audience.

But other witnesses at the hearing expressed doubt over whether computer users would accept such a requirement. The outcry from computer users over their rights being trampled would be "shocking," said Ken Silva, vice president of VeriSign Inc. "What you're proposing is tantamount to trimming a little fat off the Constitution," Silva told Bass. "Smart computer users would in fact update their software, but I'm just not sure that any kind of federal agency that required automatic updates on people's computers for all of their software is something that the public would tolerate."

Beyond a debate about the rights of computer users, an antivirus mandate could cause problems on computers not set up to run antivirus software, including ones used for factory automation or power or water treatment plants, said Bill Hancock, chief executive officer of the Internet Security Alliance. "The result is certain infrastructure would go 'splat' and not work at all," he said of Bass' antivirus and update suggestions.

The witnesses also disagreed on other ways to encourage cybersecurity. Software vendors should be pressed to write code that's less buggy, said Richard Pethia, director of the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but other witnesses representing software vendors downplayed that issue.

Trying to figure out how to build better software is "a no-win situation and just beating a dead horse," VeriSign's Silva said.

Silva and the Internet Security Alliance's Hancock suggested that Congress promote cybersecurity education, with Silva recommending Congress shift some federal funding to grade and high school education for cybersecurity awareness.

But CERT's Pethia said he doubted education efforts could reach enough computer users, saying instead software vendors need to be accountable. "The probability that we can drag 150 million users up that learning curve is relatively small," he said.