Business Roundtable (BRT) developed communications hotline to ale...
Business Roundtable (BRT) developed communications hotline to alert CEOs throughout country to national emergencies such as terrorist attacks, AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong said Thurs. at McGraw-Hill conference on homeland security. CEOComLink is secure telecom network that operates separately from…
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public switched network, he told audience. Armstrong, head of BRT’s Security & Economic Recovery Task Force, said network could be used, for example, by govt. to alert businesses, or segments of businesses, to crises. Asked what sort of information would be imparted, he gave example of AT&T’s sending staff to airports on Sept. 11 to fly to N.Y.C. and run emergency facilities. Armstrong said company didn’t know airports were closed until staff members got to airports and then they had to come back. Precious time wouldn’t have been wasted if businesses could have been alerted to airport closings ahead of time, he said. Another Sept. 11 example was Home Depot, which had emergency supplies for use in N.Y.C. and trucks to get them there, but no information on where to go and what supplies to provide, Armstrong said. Home Depot “got frustrated and just sent it,” he said. First phase of CEOComLink, which connects BRT CEOs, is nearly completed and companies will practice using it every quarter, he said. Second phase will add govt. intelligence and security agencies. In 3rd phase, businesses that aren’t part of BRT will be linked to it. Asked about security of network itself, Armstrong said it would be highly secure because govt. agencies would be linked into it.