sailingaway
09-15-2012, 12:05 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/11/congress-rubber-stamps-obamas-secret-cybersecurity-plan
in part:
Congress released the continuing resolution to fund the government into next year late yesterday. One provision in the bill should send shivers down the collective spines of those who treasure freedom of the Internet and the right to privacy. It appears that the Continuing Resolution (CR) pending in Congress will allow average American’s privacy rights to be violated.
Congress has struggled to pass legislation dealing with cybersecurity threats to the power grid and financial institutions termed “critical infrastructure.” The Senate has tentatively scheduled votes on legislation to deal with this issue, yet the Senate, and Congress as a whole, has yet to pass legislation dealing with this issue. The reason for the impasse is that there is a deep concern that if too much power is granted to the federal government in the name of protecting critical infrastructure, this new authority may allow the federal government to monitor activities with little or no relation to cybersecurity threats.
The Administration has chosen to ignore the legislative process to implement their own secret plan. The Obama Administration has secretly prepared an executive order to implement an executive order dealing with cybersecurity. Language in the CR appears to rubber stamp this secret (from the public) cybersecurity plan. The fact that his plan has yet to receive a full vetting by the American people is outrageous.
This past weekend, a draft cybersecurity executive order was leaked by the Obama Administration to members of the press. According to Federal News Radio “the draft EO includes eight sections, including the requirement to develop a way for industry to submit threat and vulnerability data to the government. The draft EO, which Federal News Radio viewed a draft copy of, closely follows the second version of comprehensive cyber legislation introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R- Maine) in July. The draft order gives agencies several deadlines to meet, either by writing reports or creating and implementing frameworks.” This is legislation that has never passed the Senate.
The Lieberman/Collins approach is something that many defenders of a free Internet oppose. The Center for Democracy and Technology circulated a letter that states in part that the Lieberman/Collins approach “undermines privacy and cybersecurity by expanding without justification the authority for companies to monitor their clients' and customers' Internet usage for broadly defined ‘cybersecurity threats,’ by authorizing ill-defined ‘countermeasures’ against such ‘cybersecurity threats,’ and by immunizing companies against liability for monitoring activities that violate their own contractual obligations.”
The letter also argues that Lieberman/Collins “creates an exemption from all existing privacy laws to allow companies to share communications and records with the government, even if those personal records are not necessary to describe a cybersecutiry threat.” They are not the only ones upset about the potential danger to freedom that the Obama cybersecurity approach portends for Americans.
more at link
in part:
Congress released the continuing resolution to fund the government into next year late yesterday. One provision in the bill should send shivers down the collective spines of those who treasure freedom of the Internet and the right to privacy. It appears that the Continuing Resolution (CR) pending in Congress will allow average American’s privacy rights to be violated.
Congress has struggled to pass legislation dealing with cybersecurity threats to the power grid and financial institutions termed “critical infrastructure.” The Senate has tentatively scheduled votes on legislation to deal with this issue, yet the Senate, and Congress as a whole, has yet to pass legislation dealing with this issue. The reason for the impasse is that there is a deep concern that if too much power is granted to the federal government in the name of protecting critical infrastructure, this new authority may allow the federal government to monitor activities with little or no relation to cybersecurity threats.
The Administration has chosen to ignore the legislative process to implement their own secret plan. The Obama Administration has secretly prepared an executive order to implement an executive order dealing with cybersecurity. Language in the CR appears to rubber stamp this secret (from the public) cybersecurity plan. The fact that his plan has yet to receive a full vetting by the American people is outrageous.
This past weekend, a draft cybersecurity executive order was leaked by the Obama Administration to members of the press. According to Federal News Radio “the draft EO includes eight sections, including the requirement to develop a way for industry to submit threat and vulnerability data to the government. The draft EO, which Federal News Radio viewed a draft copy of, closely follows the second version of comprehensive cyber legislation introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R- Maine) in July. The draft order gives agencies several deadlines to meet, either by writing reports or creating and implementing frameworks.” This is legislation that has never passed the Senate.
The Lieberman/Collins approach is something that many defenders of a free Internet oppose. The Center for Democracy and Technology circulated a letter that states in part that the Lieberman/Collins approach “undermines privacy and cybersecurity by expanding without justification the authority for companies to monitor their clients' and customers' Internet usage for broadly defined ‘cybersecurity threats,’ by authorizing ill-defined ‘countermeasures’ against such ‘cybersecurity threats,’ and by immunizing companies against liability for monitoring activities that violate their own contractual obligations.”
The letter also argues that Lieberman/Collins “creates an exemption from all existing privacy laws to allow companies to share communications and records with the government, even if those personal records are not necessary to describe a cybersecutiry threat.” They are not the only ones upset about the potential danger to freedom that the Obama cybersecurity approach portends for Americans.
more at link