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[Clips] A New Surveillance Act
by R. A. Hettinga 15 Feb '06

15 Feb '06

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: clips(a)philodox.com Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:36:26 -0500 To: Philodox Clips List <clips(a)philodox.com> From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: [Clips] A New Surveillance Act Reply-To: rah(a)philodox.com Sender: clips-bounces(a)philodox.com <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB113996743590074183.html> The Wall Street Journal February 15, 2006 COMMENTARY DOW JONES REPRINTS A New Surveillance Act By RICHARD A. POSNER February 15, 2006; Page A16 The best, and probably the only, way to end the debate over the propriety of the National Security Agency's conducting electronic surveillance outside the framework of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is for Congress to enact a new statute. The administration is right to point out that FISA, enacted in 1978 -- long before the danger of global terrorism was recognized and electronic surveillance was transformed by the digital revolution -- is dangerously obsolete. It retains value as a framework for monitoring the communications of known terrorists, but it is hopeless as a framework for detecting terrorists. It requires that surveillance be conducted pursuant to warrants based on probable cause to believe that the target of surveillance is a terrorist, when the desperate need is to find out who is a terrorist. Critics of the NSA's program point out that surveillance not cabined by a probable-cause requirement produces many false positives (intercepts that prove upon investigation to have no intelligence value). That is not a sound criticism. National security intelligence is a search for the needle in a haystack. The intelligence services must cast a wide net with a fine mesh to catch the clues that may enable the next attack to be prevented. The initial trolling for clues is done by computer search programs, which do not invade privacy because search programs are not sentient beings. The programs pick out a tiny percentage of communications to be read by (human) intelligence officers, and a small subset of these will turn out to have intelligence value and spur an investigation. Some of these may be communications to which a U.S. citizen is a party. The program is vital, given the terrorist menace, which is real and not abating. It may be thanks to such programs, as well as to other counterterrorist operations, that we have been spared a repetition of 9/11. We mustn't let our guard down, basking in the false assurance created by the lapse of time since the last attack. But the legality of the program has been called into question, and fears have been expressed about its impact on civil liberties. These concerns can be addressed without gutting the program. But not by relaxing the standard for obtaining a warrant. Instead of requiring probable cause to believe the target a terrorist, FISA could be amended to require merely reasonable suspicion. But even that would be too restrictive. And the lower the standard for getting a warrant, the less of a filter a warrant requirement creates. If all that the government is required to state in its application is that it thinks an interception might yield intelligence information, judges will have no basis for refusing to grant the application. * * * It is a mistake to think that the only way to prevent abuses of a surveillance program is by requiring warrants. Congress could enact a statute that would subject warrantless electronic surveillance to tight oversight and specific legal controls, as follows: 1. Oversight: The new statute would -- (a) Create a steering committee for national security electronic surveillance composed of the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, the secretary of homeland security (chairman), and a senior or retired federal judge or justice appointed by the chief justice of the United States. The committee would monitor all such surveillance to assure compliance with the Constitution and laws. (b) Require the NSA to submit to the FISA court, every six months, a list of the names and other identifying information of all persons whose communications had been intercepted without a warrant in the previous six months, with a brief statement of why these individuals had been targeted. If the court concluded that an interception had been inappropriate, it would so report to the steering committee and the congressional intelligence committees. 2. Specific controls: The statute would -- (a) Authorize "national security electronic surveillance" outside FISA's existing framework, provided that Congress declared a national emergency and the president certified that such surveillance was necessary in the national interest. Warrants would continue to be required for all physical searches and for all electronic surveillance for which FISA's existing probable-cause requirement could be satisfied. (b) Define "national security" narrowly, excluding "ecoterrorism," animal-rights terrorism, and other forms of political violence that, though criminal and deplorable, do not endanger the nation. (c) Sunset after five years, or sooner if the declaration of national emergency was rescinded. (d) Forbid any use of intercepted information for any purpose other than "national security" as defined in the statute (point b above). Thus the information could not be used as evidence or leads in a prosecution for ordinary crime. There would be heavy criminal penalties for violating this provision, to allay concern that "wild talk" picked up by electronic surveillance would lead to criminal investigations unrelated to national security. (e) Require responsible officials to certify to the FISA court annually that there had been no violations of the statute during the preceding year. False certification would be punishable as perjury. (f) Bar lawsuits challenging the legality of the NSA's current warrantless surveillance program. Such lawsuits would distract officials from their important duties, to no purpose given the new statute. Mr. Posner is a judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a senior lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' _______________________________________________ Clips mailing list Clips(a)philodox.com http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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[dave@farber.net: [IP] READ UK gov wants MS to give them a backdoor into Windows Vista ?! READ]
by Eugen Leitl 15 Feb '06

15 Feb '06

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: UK gov wants MS to give them a backdoor into Windows Vista ?!? Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:16:15 -0500 From: Richard Forno <rforno(a)infowarrior.org> To: Blaster <rforno(a)infowarrior.org> CC: Dave Farber <dave(a)farber.net> UK holds Microsoft security talks By Ollie Stone-Lee BBC News political reporter http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files. Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted. He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions. The Home Office later told the BBC News website it is in talks with Microsoft. Professor Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, was giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee about time limits on holding terrorism suspects without charge. He said: "From later this year, the encryption landscape is going to change with the release of Microsoft Vista." The system uses BitLocker Drive Encryption through a chip called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in the computer's motherboard. It is partly aimed at preventing people from downloading unlicensed films or media. "This means that by default your hard disk is encrypted by using a key that you cannot physically get at... "An unfortunate side effect from law enforcement is it would be technically fairly seriously difficult to dig encrypted material out of the system if it has been set up competently." Professor Anderson said people were discussing the idea of making computer vendors ensure "back door keys" to encrypted material were made available. The Home Office should enter talks with Microsoft now rather than when the system is introduced, he said. He said encryption tools generally were either good or useless. "If they are good, you either guess the password or give up," he said. The committee heard that suspects could claim to have lost their encryption key - although juries could decide to let this count this against them in the same way as refusing to answer questions in a police interview. A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office has already been in touch with Microsoft concerning this matter and is working closely with them." Increased awareness about high-tech crime and computer crime has prompted the Home Office to talk to IT companies regularly about new software. Government officials look at the security of new systems, whether they are easy for the general public to hack into and how the police can access material in them. Preventing tampering On its Windows Vista website, Microsoft says Bitlocker Drive Encryption "provides considerable off-line data and operating system protection for your computer". "BitLocker ensures that data stored on a computer running Windows Vista is not revealed if the machine is tampered with when the installed operating system is offline," it says. The system, part of what is called "trusted computing" mechanisms, is designed to stop malicious programs being installed surreptitiously on computers. The Trusted Computing Group has been working for some years on a hardware-based system which is built into the motherboards of many Intel-based computers. But most people will not be able to use its features until Microsoft Windows Vista is launched. Critics say the companies behind most trusted computing want to use digital rights management to ensure users cannot use programs they have not approved. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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[dave@farber.net: [IP] Whistleblower says NSA violations bigger]
by Eugen Leitl 15 Feb '06

15 Feb '06

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> -----

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faa.gov flight info to your cellphone
by Bill Stewart 15 Feb '06

15 Feb '06

So I'm sitting in the airport listening to the latest Vice Presidential Hunter Safety Program TV news, and there's a commercial about the FAA's www.fly.faa.gov website which lets you sign up to get near-real-time airport status information, including giving them your cellphone number to get updates. It looks fairly innocuous (and says to contact your airline for details about your specific flight, so it may not be fully operational), and it also has a pointer to http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html which is the TSA's site for getting estimated papers-in-order wait time. Are these purely honest services (maybe)? Or are the TSA Internal Passport folks tracking travellers who provide their info (maybe, maybe not, but if not, they'll certainly start abusing them once they realize they can)?

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You Won't Regret vrx
by Elvis Sharp 15 Feb '06

15 Feb '06

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viennese trafficking
by Roberta Nixon 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

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[dave@farber.net: [IP] E-tracking through your cell phone]
by Eugen Leitl 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> -----

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noprescanadarx online
by Roberto E. Mcdaniel 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

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Thanks for being a good friend!
by Angelina Mcconnell 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

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HOPE Number Six call for participation
by Greg Newby 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

Call for Participation HOPE Number Six July 21-23 2006 The Hotel Pennsylvania New York City HOPE Number Six (www.hopenumbersix.net) is this summer's hacker conference sponsored by 2600 Magazine. Presenters and artists from all nationalities and disciplines are again invited to participate in this forum. HOPE Number Six covers all aspects of hacking, the community surrounding it, and its effects across the world. For three days, The Hotel Pennsylvania will be the nexus of discussion, planning, and activity for hacker ideas, opportunities, and understanding. There are several ways to participate: * Speak: Presentation ideas should be submitted with a synopsis of the topic along with presenter bio, and will be chosen by relevance and peer review. Panels, talks, tutorials, debates, or other types of presentations are all welcome. Most presentations will be 55 minutes. * Interact: Demonstrations of new and interesting technologies or system elements as well as artistic exhibits are welcome. We have 20,000 square feet of presentation space to fill, so projects of all sizes will be considered. Robots, Segways, Legos, RFID, digital graffiti -- submit your creative ideas! * Display: All sorts of presentations, demos, workshops, classes, posters, and other ways of sharing information are encouraged. Space and time will be provided to accommodate proposals. * Sell: Space is also available for vendors. Prospects should describe their group and the items they are selling. Vendors are chosen by relevance to the conference topic and organization size. Topics related to all aspects of hackers and hacking are welcome. In past years, sessions have included these themes: * New technologies * Effects of new laws and business models * Hackers and activism * Telephone systems * Radio communication * Intelligence gathering * Lockpicking * Privacy * System internals vulnerabilities * Copy protection * Governments * Strong crypto * Data exchange * Voting systems * Social engineering * Programming techniques * Hacker Ethics * Stories from K-12 * Surveillance * Systems administration * Worms and viruses * The man and how to avoid him * Information privacy * International cooperation * Peer to peer networks * Wireless * Culture jamming * Low-power radio * Black hats and white hats * Cyberterrorism and cyber protests * Teaching hacking * The media Other topics are welcome, especially those offering fresh views and new variants on old themes. Submissions should be sent to "speakers(a)2600.com" and include names (or aliases) and email addresses in addition to the information requested above. Conference planning is ongoing throughout the spring, so submit your ideas or suggestions as early as possible. Late proposals will be considered only if space is still available. For more information about HOPE Number Six, check the web pages at www.hopenumbersix.net. These pages provide opportunities to volunteer, as well as information about travel, the hotel, and more specific info on speakers, tutorials, and the many activities that will be ongoing.

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