The Podium
Blog posts tagged with 'Government'
Thursday, July 29
By Brad
The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration wants to ease restrictions so the FBI can force companies to hand over employee Internet activity without a court order:
The administration wants to add just four words—“electronic communication transactional records”—to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.
But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.
Thursday, July 01
By Brad
Last month, vice-president Joe Biden told reporters that online piracy was “no different than smashing a window at Tiffany’s,” and that the government would be expanding efforts to shut piracy sites down. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reports, the first shutdowns began:
In an ongoing fight against intellectual piracy, federal authorities seized the domain names of nine websites accused of letting users watch on-demand versions of first-run movies.
Referring to the sites as “among the most popular” websites for distributing illegal copies of movies, the government highlighted copies of films currently in theaters, such as “Toy Story 3” and “The A-Team,” for evidence to obtain the warrant.
The nine sites had registered their domain names via U.S.-based registration services, allowing authorities to take control of their site addresses. Some were run on computers based in the U.S.—in Colorado, Florida and Illinois. But others used computers based in Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Czech Republic.
Wednesday, June 09
By Brad
Via the Telegraph, Twitter is looking to hire a “liaison” to help government officials maximize the full potential of the popular micro-blogging service:
The company, which has yet to employ anyone outside of San Francisco, is looking for someone to be the “closest point of contact with a variety of important people and organisations looking to get the most out of Twitter on both strategic and highly tactical levels”, according to the job advert.
The ‘Government Liaison’ will be responsible for helping Twitter understand what it can do “to better serve candidates and policymakers across party and geographical lines”. They will also “support policymakers use of Twitter to help them communicate and interact with their constituents and the world” and help set the culture and approach of a “fledgling public policy department”.
(Speaking of Twitter’s popularity, GigaOm reports that the company now handles around 65 million “tweets” a day — or about 2 billion a month. That’s a lot of messages at 140 characters a pop.)
Tuesday, November 03
By Brad
Via the BBC comes the strange story of a small town city council, a muckraking blogger, and the mass resignation due to criticism from that blogger.
Wednesday, September 16
By Brad
Computer World has news on Google’s latest move toward worldwide domination:
Google will offer cloud-computing services designed specifically for U.S. government agencies starting next year, the company announced Tuesday at the NASA Ames Research Center.
The services will give government agencies a way to purchase services such as Google Apps, by ensuring that they meet regulatory requirements, said Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management with Google enterprise.
By Brad
Following in Apple’s footsteps, the U.S. government has created its own “app store.” Reports the New York Times:
On Tuesday, Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, unveiled Apps.Gov, a Web site where federal agencies will able to buy so-called cloud computing applications and services that have been approved by the government to replace more costly and cumbersome computing services at their own locations.
The push to promote cloud computing is part of the Obama administration’s effort to modernize the government’s information technology systems and to help reduce the $75 billion annual budget for federal I.T. in the process.
Friday, August 28
By Brad
The late Senator Ted Kennedy wasn’t just the “Lion of the Senate,” he was also the first Senator to use the Internet to communicate with his constituents.
Monday, April 27
By Brad
With all the media attention on the so-called “Swine Flu,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have turned to Twitter to keep the public informed:
Wednesday, April 15
By Brad
Raw Story reports that a cybersecurity bill proposed in the Senate contains language that would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet during a crisis:
The bill’s draft states that “the president may order a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic” and would give the government ongoing access to “all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.”
Authored by Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 seeks to create a Cybersecurity Czar to centralize power now held by the Pentagon, National Security Agency, Department of Commerce and the Department of Homeland Security.
Proponents of the bill say the provision is necessary to for the protection of America. Critics, however, are worried the bill reaches too far:
Organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology fear if passed in its current form, the proposal leaves too much discretion of just what defines critical infrastructure. The bill would also impose mandates for designated private networks and systems, including standardized security software, testing, licensing and certification of cyber-security professionals.
“I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t include communications systems, which are certainly critical infrastructure,” CDT General Counsel Greg Nojeim told eWEEK. “The president would decide not only what is critical infrastructure but also what is an emergency.”
Adds Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many systems (banks, telecommunications, energy)are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government.”
Tuesday, March 31
By Brad
Over in the UK, a new proposal would allow the government to keep tabs on how citizens use popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Civil liberty watchdogs are, predictably, up in arms about the plan. And as the BBC reports, so are some politicians:
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said the websites contained sensitive personal details and he was concerned information could leak from any government-controlled database.
The Independent newspaper quoted him as saying similar plans to store phone and email records threatened to be the “most expensive snooper’s charter in history”.
“It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views,” he said.
Facebook’s official response is that the proposal is “overkill.” As for the government’s response:
A spokesman said: “The government has no interest in the content of people’s social network sites and this is not going to be part of our upcoming consultation.
“We have been clear that the communications revolution has been rapid in this country and the way in which we collect communications data needs to change, so that law enforcement agencies can maintain their ability to tackle terrorism and gather evidence.”
Stay tuned…
Wednesday, February 11
By Brad
As eWeek reports, two days ago President Obama ordered Homeland Security advisors to conduct a 60-day review of the nation’s cyber-security.
“The national security and economic health of the United States depend on the security, stability and integrity of our nation’s cyberspace, both in the public and private sectors,” John Brennan, assistant to the president for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, said in a White House statement. “The President is confident that we can protect our nation’s critical cyber-infrastructure while at the same time adhering to the rule of law and safeguarding privacy rights and civil liberties.”
Again, that was just two days ago. And as it turns out, the review process quickly proved to be necessary, as just yesterday Network World reported that:
The Federal Aviation Administration has joined the growing list of government agencies that have had their supposedly safe systems hacked. The agency this week notified about 45,000 employees that one of its servers was hacked into and employee personal identity information was stolen.
The FAA was quick to say the server that was accessed was not connected to the operation of the air traffic control system or any other FAA operational system. It did say two of the 48 files on the breached computer server contained personal information about more than 45,000 FAA employees and retirees who were on the FAA’s rolls as of the first week of February 2006.
With President Obama planning to completely overhaul government networks, cyber security is going to be more important than ever.
Tuesday, January 20
By Brad
The official White House website has bee refreshed and re-launched—complete with a blog.
Monday, December 22
By Brad
Ars Technica has an interesting report on the Department of Homeland Security’s recent “Cyberwargames.”
The Cyber Strategic Inquiry, held at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday, brought together 230 top leaders from government and the private sector for an elaborate simulation of a large-scale attack on America’s information infrastructure. The simulation was run by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in collaboration with Business Executives for National Security.
Participants were split into four teams comprising government officials, a private-sector team, a civil-society team, and a mixed-membership control group. The teams represented groups whose response in a real attack would be critical. On the government side, there was Homeland Security, the intelligence community, the Defense Department, and various civilian agencies; on the business side, financial services, telecom and IT firms, energy companies, and the transportation sector.
Unfortunately, the results from the tests weren’t exactly encouraging:
“There isn’t a response or a game plan,” Booz Allen Senior VP Mark Gerencser told reporters, “There isn’t really anybody in charge.” House Homeland Security Chair James Langevin (D-RI) agreed, saying “we’re way behind where we need to be now.”
As the U.S. aims to build up its broadband infrastructure, these sort of doomsday games are going to become more and more vital.
By Brad
Maybe you’re an all-out advocate? Perhaps you strongly oppose the plan? Wherever you stand, the battle over the FCC’s free-but-filtered (for “inappropriate content) broadband plan remains alive, but hanging on by a thread. According to DSLReports:
Rules or no rules, it’s still unlikely that this plan ever makes it past the planning stage. Debate next year over government’s involvement in broadband infrastructure is going to involve countless different plans supported by very large companies, and it’s very likely the M2Z plan gets lost in the mix. The plan always had a tough uphill fight, both against incumbent lobbyists and those who believe the filters, required as a spectrum auction condition, are unconstitutional.
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