NATION Homeland Security offers free alerts on Net attacks

Critics said the previous system was often late in issuing warnings.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Aiming to increase Internet security, the government is now offering Americans free cyber alerts and computer advice from the Homeland Security Department.
Anyone who signs up with the new National Cyber Alert System will receive e-mails about major virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks as they occur, along with detailed instructions to help computer users protect themselves.
The program, which begins today, represents an ambitious effort by the government to develop a trusted warning system that can help home users and technology experts.
The goal of improving the overall security of the Internet has been frustrated by increasingly complex software that can be difficult to secure and by hackers learning to launch sophisticated new attacks.
The announcement comes 11 months after such an Internet warning system was described in the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a series of proposals endorsed by the Bush administration and technology industry to improve online security.
The alerts will function independently from the Homeland Security Department's well-known color-coded system, which reflects the national threat level.
Competitors
The new alert system puts the government in direct competition with dozens of companies and organizations that already transmit similar cyber warnings, and could renew criticisms about earlier, disjointed government efforts that frequently sounded Internet warnings hours or even days after major computer attacks and occasionally included incorrect information.
Earlier Internet warnings were distributed by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, which moved to Homeland Security when President Bush created the new department.
Congressional investigators complained in July 2002 that those earlier warnings were mostly issued after Internet attacks were long under way. They blamed government's inability to analyze imminent Internet attacks, fears about raising false alarms and staff shortages.
XOn the Net: US CERT: www.us-cert.gov