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Bush Wants an Unhackable Private Network
Slur points out an article at the New York Times which says that the "Bush administration is considering the creation of a secure new government communications network separate from the Internet that would be less vulnerable to attack and efforts to disrupt critical federal activities," writing "It seems to me money would be better spent getting the next-generation Internet going, for the government to fund more of the existing research and standards boards to create protocols that are invulnerable to the kinds of attacks the government seems to fear, namely massive DOS attacks. Or is there something else a 'net terrorist' could do to 'disrupt the vital flow of information'?" Isn't hard-to-disrupt communication the reason that DARPA got involved in this "Internet" business anyhow? Update: 11/19 22:48 GMT by T : This was mentioned before a little while ago when USA Today wrote about the same concept, but apparently a Digital Pearl Harbor is still being flogged.
It seems to me this would evolve just the way the Internet did before; it would at first be used just by government agencies, next given to the large defense contractors, eventually adopted by the research universities, and then swallowed whole by Joe Public. This, IMHO, is the best way to get the next-gen Internet.
What he's asking for is like asking for poison-free food. Sure, the ovens can be locked and the food can be tested over and over, but the cook is still there.
The only concievable way to do this is to either:
a) Eliminate Government Data Access to All But the Highest Officials (which still poses the same problem, in theory) or
b) Eliminate the network altogether.
Bush is asking for something that isn't possible because social engineering and the "inside job" is the oldest way to hack any system of anything. Hacking didn't start with computers, bank vaults, locks, jewelry stashes... they were all done in the past with inside work.
It's impossible because of human error and human presence.