The proposal was among the earliest outgrowths of the Bush administration's strategy for securing cyberspace. The plan was heavily influenced by technology lobbyists when it was formally adopted earlier this year. Now lobbyists and others are getting a chance to rewrite the SEC legislation to make it more palatable.
Some observers are impressed with the behind-the-scenes influence of industry groups like the Information Technology Association of America and the Business Software Alliance in shaping the administration's most important computer-security policies.
"They've driven it in many ways. They've been very, very effective," said James Lewis, the technology policy director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
Homeland Security officials are sensitive to suggestions that the largest U.S. technology companies--concerned about the potential costs of new regulations--have exerted undue influence. But they defend working closely with executives, noting the industry's ownership of most computer networks and the U.S. government's hands-off preference toward most Internet concerns.
"We're clearly not catering to special interests," said Amit Yoran, the newly appointed director of the department's National Cyber Security Division and a former executive at the antivirus firm Symantec Corp., He added, "To not allow for industry associations to provide us with their input and their opinions would not be prudent. It would be irresponsible."
