It shares information with the private sector. But some Clinton administration officials had worried about the NIPC's ability to communicate with the rest of the national security system and some experts would prefer a more coordinated approach, combining government and private industry efforts. The respected Gartner Group of consultants says it'll have 72 million Internet users at the end of this year. That's a 72 percent increase over the end of 1999, when the number was 41.8 million, according to Gartner's Dataquest unit. Gartner forecast growth at an annual rate of 17 percent, to reach 188 million by 2004.
Japan is the top country.
It had 17.4 million users at the end of 1999, but Gartner predicts that will nearly triple by the end of this year and will reach 64.5 million by 2004. China and India are other countries with Internet booms and forecasts of continued strong growth. Singapore also has boomed, but Gartner predicted that growth will slow as its market matures. Less developed nations, such as Thailand and Indonesia, also will show growth, but start with a very small base of Internet users. It said it had called in security experts Kroll Worldwide to investigate.