NSA Program Seven Years Behind Schedule: Data Security Risks

(Baltimore Sun, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jul. 2--WASHINGTON -- The number of reported attempts to penetrate Pentagon computer networks rose sharply in the past decade, from fewer than 800 in 1996 to more than 160,000 last year - thousands of them successful. At the same time, the nation's ability to safeguard sensitive data in those and other government computer systems is becoming obsolete as efforts to make improvements have faltered and stalled.

A National Security Agency program to protect secrets at the Defense Department and intelligence and other agencies is seven years behind schedule, triggering concerns that the data will be increasingly vulnerable to theft, according to intelligence officials and unclassified internal NSA documents obtained by The Sun. When fully implemented, the program would build a new encryption system to strengthen protections on computer networks and would more effectively control the access of millions of people to government computer systems and buildings.