[privacy] Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring

[Joel R. Helgeson]

There is a long history here that needs to be taken into consideration... We
are seeing a paradigm shift in our government that is long overdue. It used
to be that the government had to protect paper documents, "eyes only", and
the biggest threat were photocopiers and miniature cameras... not any more.

I wrote about this transformation last year. Is it any wonder why the NSA is
being brought up and groomed to help protect the critical information assets
that the United States has?

>From my post:

HumInt/SigInt:
Human Intelligence, CIA
Signal Intelligence, NSA

The English have been masters at the spy trade for centuries. In WWII, the
United States felt that it should get into the act and turned to the English
for guidance.

With their tutelage, the CIA became a formidable tool against the Soviet
threat throughout the cold war. We had clearly defined enemies with clearly
defined borders. Gathering intelligence became a methodical science... then,
once the Soviet Union collapsed, the clearly defined enemies with clearly
defined borders went with it.

The growth of the internet created an atmosphere wherein information and
'intelligence' became a commodity. Then the emergence of an enemy that is
not only difficult, if not impossible, to clearly define but who also
operates entirely without borders. The polar opposite from what the CIA were
trained to do.

Not only has this rule-set reset turned the CIA upside-down, it has rendered
it all but useless. The UK isn't doing much better either. The problem is
that western society itself is at odds with the rules required to make an
effective spy agency. Our open government(s), free access to information,
laws against spying on citizens and so forth are what both protect our civil
liberties as well as create the environment in which our enemies can plot
against us.

The CIA knew about al Qaeda operators operating in the USA prior to 9/11,
yet did nothing to notify the FBI. This is because of the opposing nature of
each agency. The CIA finds a criminal and wants to string them along to see
what intelligence they can uncover by monitoring them. When the FBI finds a
criminal, they want to string them up. From the CIA perspective, the FBI
sure knows how to screw up an investigation and destroy your intelligence
network.

The CIA is now dysfunctional to the point of uselessness. In fact, there
isn't a single effective spy agency in the western world. The current battle
we're fighting and the enemy we face is one that cannot be defeated by
military might, it is a war that MUST be fought using intelligence.

So, the administration turned to the only other agency with experience in
gathering and monitoring enemies. It also happens that this agency is
experts at SigInt, as opposed to the HumInt. The problem is that the NSA is
forbidden by law from spying on American Citizens, UNLESS they are
monitoring overseas communications. This exception has always been allowed,
no warrant necessary. There is no law that states that I have the
constitutional right to conspire with enemies overseas.

No other nation even comes close to the SigInt capabilities of the NSA...

It is imperative that the NSA get on top of this nations information
security. A staggering number of government agencies are still not even
behind firewalls! There is so much bureaucratic stagnation that nothing
meaningful has been done to secure this nations governmental infrastructure.

Finally, they are putting an agency in charge that actually *knows*
something about security.  I applaud this effort wholeheartedly.

Regards,

Joel Helgeson

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Ferguson [mailto:fergdawg at netzero.net] 
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 12:31 AM
To: privacy at whitestar.linuxbox.org
Subject: [privacy] Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring

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Via The Washington Post.

[snip]

President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence
community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising
number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems.

The directive, whose content is classified, authorizes the intelligence
agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the
computer networks of all federal agencies -- including ones they have not
previously monitored.

Until now, the government's efforts to protect itself from cyber-attacks --
which run the gamut from hackers to organized crime to foreign governments
trying to steal sensitive data -- have been piecemeal.

Under the new initiative, a task force headed by the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence (ODNI) will coordinate efforts to identify the
source of cyber-attacks against government computer systems. As part of
that effort, the Department of Homeland Security will work to protect the
systems and the Pentagon will devise strategies for counterattacks against
the intruders.

[snip]

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR200801250
3261.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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