National Information Infrastructure (NII) reliability and survivability initiatives

A joint industry-government telecommunications planning mechanism, which is already in place, is being used to address reliability and survivability issues for the National Information Infrastructure (NII). The Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) established four groups to address applications and technology, information policy, telecommunications policy, and security issues for the NII. The Reliability and Vulnerability Working Group (RVWG) was established under the Telecommunications Policy Committee. Its purpose is to identify policies and procedures needed to ensure that the NII telecommunications services and information systems will provide high quality service for normal operations and the maximum availability of services to meet public, private, and commercial needs, as well as national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) requirements. These NS/EP requirements include communications capabilities needed by Federal, State, and local emergency officials to prepare for, respond to, and recover from any national emergency, such as hostile attacks, electronic intrusions, or natural and technological disasters