White house security officials are coming around to the idea that government regulation of the software industry may be needed to make the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace work.

Security experts, academics and business executives told Richard Clarke, chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, at a meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here last week, that the board's strategy needs provisions to hold software vendors accountable for the security of their products.

The gathering is one of a series of meetings that the PCIPB is holding around the country to obtain comment on the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a draft of which was released last month. The deadline for comments is Nov. 18.

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