One of the fun parts of working in the cybersecurity field is that you often come across new technology that is interesting, dismaying, disturbing or just plain cool. Sometimes the technology is all of those at the same time. And … Read more »
As Raffaela has already noted, in today’s Washington Post there is a fascinating story about government plans to require new cyber communications technologies to provide a means by which the government can intercept communications. The problem, briefly stated, is … Read more »
Last Thursday and Friday, the Senate and House respectively passed legislation providing that Sections 8 and 11 of the STOCK Act, which would have required publication on the Internet of the financial disclosure forms of senior military officers, senior executive … Read more »
The European Union has begun consideration of a new Data Protection Directive that is intended to protect personal information from uwarranted disclosure by corporations or governments. Among the more controversial aspects of the proposal is the idea of a “Right … Read more »
Today, a National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) task force released a report mandated by Congress on the risks posed by Section 11 of the STOCK Act, which would require Internet publication of the financial disclosure forms of 28,000 senior … Read more »
Who says that bipartisanship is dead and that our legislative process doesn’t work. For those who despair in all cases, take note today of the joint effort by Senators Leahy and Lee to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. … Read more »
In its latest transparency report published this week, Google began sharing very general data about the number of National Security Letters (NSLs) it receives from the FBI or other government agencies seeking non-content transactional data in relation to national security … Read more »
Here’s an update on the status of Section 11 of the STOCK Act, the law enacted last year that would have required 28,000 senior executive officials (and senior military officers) to post their financial disclosure forms on the websites of … Read more »
Amid all the fiscal cliff hubbub, the Senate on Friday approved, and President Obama on Sunday signed, the inelegantly if accurately named “FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012.” The new law extends its predecessor, the FISA Amendments Act … Read more »
The Wall Street Journal has an article today, titled “U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens.” It reports:
The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for
In the category of shameless self-promotion, I am quite pleased to announce the publication of National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars, and Policymakers. The book is a joint publication of the ABA Standing Committee on … Read more »
Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with the following thoughts on fusion centers:
As Matt Waxman noted last month, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations recently published a
For those following Section 11 of the STOCK Act, this afternoon President Obama signed S. 3625, which delays until December 8 the dangerous and short-sighted requirement in Section 11 of the STOCK Act that the financial disclosure forms of … Read more »
At the risk of tooting my own horn a bit, I am pleased to announce the publication of “Drones in U.S. Airspace: Principles for Governance” a paper I co-authored with three other colleagues at The Heritage Foundation (where … Read more »
This afternoon, Judge Alexander Williams of the District Court in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction against implementation of Section 11 of the STOCK Act, which would require publication of the financial disclosure forms of 28,000 senior executive officials on the … Read more »
Like Jack, I was struck by the Defense Science Board’s report on the autonomy of military systems, but it was a different aspect of the report that caught my eye – enough so that I thought it was … Read more »
The Constitution Project today released a new report titled Recommendations for Fusion Centers: Preserving Privacy & Civil Liberties While Protecting Against Crime & Terrorism. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the federal government worked with states and some … Read more »
Here’s a challenge: Can either President Obama or any member of Congress explain why it makes good sense to require 28,000 senior executive officials to post their financial disclosure forms (containing extremely detailed information about the checking accounts, savings accounts, … Read more »
In a series of posts (here, here, and here) fellow Lawfare blogger John Bellinger has written about the difficulties with the STOCK Act — what the Washington Post calls a “Laughing Stock.” Readers will recall that … Read more »
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Governing Body this week approved Recommended Guidelines for the Use of Unmanned Aircraft (downloadable here) by American law enforcement agencies. Among other things, they call for engagement with the community and … Read more »
I’ve been away on business travel this past week and am headed off on vacation next week so blogging for me has been light. But one recent post caught my eye and motivated me to add a quick note:
My … Read more »
Yesterday the NYPD unveiled its Domain Awareness System, which aggregates and analyzes existing public safety data streams (including license plate readers and video surveillance camera systems) in real time. Over at the Council on Foreign Relations, I wrote a short … Read more »
A big win for the government today in the Ninth Circuit, in a case exploring the impact of FISA’s civil liability provision (50 USC 1810) on sovereign immunity. In a panel opinion written by Judge McKeown and joined … Read more »
The Washington Post has an editorial today — entitled “Laughing STOCK” in today’s print editions — criticizing the STOCK Act’s internet publication mandate for executive branch financial disclosure forms.
Here are two key excerpts:
As its name implies, the act
Last week, I posted about the national security and personal safety threats posed by Section 11 of the STOCK Act, which would have required senior executive branch officials to post their SF-278 financial disclosure forms (listing all of the debts, … Read more »
Over at the Emptywheel blog, Ms. Wheel (aka Marcy Wheeler) has this response to former Justice Department official Carrie Cordero’s guest post of this morning. She notes that Senator Wyden responded at yesterday’s CATO event to one of the … Read more »
Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with the following account of a recent Cato Institute event (which, ahem, would have been on the Lawfare calendar and the good folks … Read more »
In March, Congress passed the Stop Insider Trading in Congressional Knowledge Act (the STOCK Act), which was intended to prevent members of Congress from trading in securities based on non-public information gained in their official positions. Unfortunately, an amendment added … Read more »
Former Secretary of DHS, Michael Chertoff has this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, concerning Google’s subversion of Safari’s security settings. Here’s the introduction:
In the cyber age, privacy and security are two sides of the same coin. Digital
Gabriella Blum has a new essay out entitled, “Invisible Threats.” Part of the Emerging Threats series of the Hoover Institution’s Koret-Taube Task Force on National Security and Law (of which Jack, Ken, Matt, and I am are all … Read more »
FAA, eat your heart out. From The Hill, we learn that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has proposed legislation to curb the use of drones for domestic surveillance. The heart of his “Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2012… Read more »
As I’ve argued previously here (at length) and here (briefly), if you are interested in government counterterrorism intelligence activities and privacy, don’t just pay attention at the federal level – there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on at … Read more »
In light of the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari yesterday to review the Second Circuit’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International, I thought I’d put together a background post trying to explain why, in my view, Clapper is such … Read more »
As Raffaela noted earlier, Atlantic blogger Conor Friedersdorf has written in praise (sort of) of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer for the latter’s opposition to domestic drones. I would consider this a heartwarming example of a cross-ideological meeting of the … Read more »
Well, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act passed the House last week. Now that the dust has cleared (and before we move on to the coming Senate battles) it’s probably worthwhile looking at the changes that were made to … Read more »
Susan Landau is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Computer Science Department, formerly a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, and the author of Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies. She is also one of the … Read more »
In an earlier post I commented on the politics of the cybersecurity debate. I wrote: “One final piece of the political calculus is what the Administration wants. Right now all public signs are that they want BOTH information sharing … Read more »
Late yesterday, the House sponsors of the CISPA cybersecurity legislation (to be considered tomorrow) announced a series of amendments to the bill intended to address some of the concerns advanced by privacy and civil liberties groups. To quote from their … Read more »
UCLA Professor John Villasenor and I have this oped coming out in tomorrow’s Washington Post responding to calls for the Federal Aviation Administration to take action to protect privacy in the context in the context of regulating the domestic use … Read more »
Over the past several weeks, I’ve written a number of blogs about the substance of the cybersecurity bills pending before Congress. As the House moves to consider cyber legislation next week and as the Senate prepares to begin its debate, … Read more »
The House Homeland Security Committee has now released its own updated version of a cybersecurity bill. The text is (Lungren Substitute April 2012). This bill stands in pretty significant contrast to the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill which (in its … Read more »
The Rogers-Ruppersberger bill will come to the floor the week of April 23. It’s information sharing provisions are likely to be the crux of the debate on the House side. Today, the Manager’s filed a draft amendment in the nature … Read more »
In earlier posts I’ve written generally about the information sharing provisions of the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill and the McCain bill. Today I want to continue drilling down in comparing the two bills on a more detailed basis by examining … Read more »
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post reports that the White House thwarted NSA attempts to seek legislation that “would have required hundreds of companies that provide such critical services as electricity generation to allow their Internet traffic to be continuously … Read more »
Well, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is now available for Senate consideration. A link to the text of the bill can be found here for download. Hearings will be held this Thursday. Weighing in at 205 pages, the bill’s text … Read more »
One of the dangers of blogging about current events is that changing events tend to overtake what you have written. Earlier this week, I wrote about the two House bills currently moving through that chamber.
Amendments have been made to … Read more »
In two earlier posts I’ve focused on some of the particular issues that may arise during the Senate’s consideration of a comprehensive cybersecurity bill. The focus on the Senate is apt, inasmuch as Senator Reid has promised to bring a … Read more »
Nobody in Washington ever got rich making predictions about the political process. Nevertheless, I will go out on a limb and predict that at some point in the coming debate over the Senate cybersecurity bill, you will hear or read … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
