Panel Urges Major NSA Spying Overhaul 242
wiredmikey writes "A board set up to review the NSA's vast surveillance programs has called for a wide-ranging overhaul of National Security Agency practices while preserving 'robust' intelligence capabilities. The panel, set up by President Obama, issued 46 recommendations, including reforms at a secret national security court and an end to retention of telephone 'metadata' by the spy agency. The 308-page report (PDF) submitted last week to the White House and released publicly Wednesday says the US government needs to balance the interests of national security and intelligence gathering with privacy and 'protecting democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law.' Panel members said the recommendations would not necessarily mean a rolling back of intelligence gathering, including on foreign leaders, but that surveillance must be guided by standards and by high-level policymakers."
Snowden saved The Constitution that Obama defiled (Score:5, Interesting)
LOL. As if they give a damn about any of those things!
Obama has set the dogs on Snowden (forcing down Evo Morales's plane like a Bond villain to try and catch him), but Obama has also violated the US Constitution itself. How much more serious can you get?
On the campaign trail Obama referred to himself as "a constitutional law professor" so he can't claim ignorance. Yet there is no penalty for him violating it; After years of accumulated abuse it'll eventually weave it's way to the US Supreme Court who will say "So don't do that then." What sort of a deterrent is that?
So what does happens when you give a left-leaning spokesmodel unfettered power and no accountability? SCOTUS J Brandeis on Absolute Power: "The objections to despotism and monopoly are fundamental in human nature. They rest upon the innate and ineradicable selfishness of man. They rest upon the fact that absolute power inevitably leads to abuse."
When the US founding fathers wrote the Constitution they wisely recognised the dangers of a despotic government, having just fought a war with one. The problem the US faces today is that despots ignore the law, and face no penalty for doing so.
Re:We pay the EFF to read this, right? (Score:2, Interesting)
Recommendations 37 thru 46 all seem to be designed to prevent another Snowden
Recommendation 37
We recommend that the US Government should move toward a
system in which background investigations relating to the vetting of
personnel for security clearance are performed solely by US Government
employees or by a non-profit, private sector corporation.
Recommendation 38
We recommend that the vetting of personnel for access to classified
information should be ongoing, rather than periodic. A standard of
Personnel Continuous Monitoring should be adopted, incorporating data
from Insider Threat programs and from commercially available sources,
to note such things as changes in credit ratings or any arrests or court
proceedings.
Recommendation 39
We recommend that security clearances should be more highly
differentiated, including the creation of “administrative access”
clearances that allow for support and information technology personnel
to have the access they need without granting them unnecessary access to
substantive policy or intelligence material.
Recommendation 40
We recommend that the US Government should institute a
demonstration project in which personnel with security clearances
would be given an Access Score, based upon the sensitivity of the
information to which they have access and the number and sensitivity of
Special Access Programs and Compartmented Material clearances they
have. Such an Access Score should be periodically updated.
Recommendation 41
We recommend that the “need-to-share” or “need-to-know” models
should be replaced with a Work-Related Access model, which would
ensure that all personnel whose role requires access to specific
information have such access, without making the data more generally
available to cleared personnel who are merely interested.
Recommendation 42
We recommend that the Government networks carrying Secret and
higher classification information should use the best available cyber
security hardware, software, and procedural protections against both
external and internal threats. The National Security Advisor and the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget should annually
report to the President on the implementation of this standard. All
networks carrying classified data, including those in contractor
corporations, should be subject to a Network Continuous Monitoring
Program, similar to the EINSTEIN 3 and TUTELAGE programs, to record
network traffic for real time and subsequent review to detect anomalous
activity, malicious actions, and data breaches.
Recommendation 43
We recommend that the President’s prior directions to improve the
security of classified networks, Executive Order 13587, should be fully
implemented as soon as possible.
Recommendation 44
We recommend that the National Security Council Principals
Committee should annually meet to review the state of security of US
Government networks carrying classified information, programs to
improve such security, and evolving threats to such networks. An
interagency “Red Team” should report annually to the Principals with an
independent, “second opinion” on the state of security of the classified
information networks.
Recommendation 45
We recommend that all US agencies and departments with
classified information should expand their use of software, hardware,
and procedures that limit access to documents and data to those
specifically authorized to have access to them. The US Government
should fund the development of, procure, and widely use on classified
networks improved Information Rights Management software to control
the dissemination of classified data in a way that provides greater
restrictions on access and use, as well as an audit trail of such use.
Recommendation 46
We recommend the use of cost-benefit analysis and riskmanagement
approaches, both prospective and retrospective, to orient
judgments about personnel security and network security measures.
Re:Bah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Godwin's Law (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe, but can I just make a point about Godwin's Law? If the moment somebody mentions Nazis, the STASI, Pol Pot or any other extremist regime and is immediately "Godwinned", how are we to learn anything from these terrible historical precedents? If the actions of a supposedly democratic government really can be compared to Nazism, etc, then "Godwin's" is just a way to shut down debate about that. Just how badly does somebody need to act before the comparisons are apt? How will we know?
Personally, I think with the recent revelations about the NSA et. al., I think it's high time that Godwin's Law was at least reconsidered, if not outright repealed.
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Interesting)
You forget to mention just how inept NSA turned out to be, both in its internal security procedures, and in their dealing with personnel.
I would be extremely surprised if, with that attitude, they didn't have swarms of bona fide foreign spies, Russian and Chinese and who knows what else. What better place to infiltrate than the one that does data mining on the entire country, yet cannot properly secure its own data banks? You don't even need to tap anything, just join and get the collected data out on USB sticks, like Snowden apparently did for years before he dropped the bomb.
There is something wrong with your brain. (Score:5, Interesting)
What shocks me more than spying is the fact that so many people on slashdot seem to have only become aware of it when Snowden leaked. I'm guessing you were either asleep during the Cold War or not yet born. Either that or wilfully ignorant, or just plain stupid. I suspect the latter, because frankly the naivete you and others show here is simply breathtaking.