Legislation Seeks to Bar N.S.A. Tactic in Encryption...

[Indi Guy]

Source: NY Times


[font size="2"]Legislation proposed by Representative Rush D. Holt Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, would eliminate much of the escalation in the government’s spying powers undertaken since 2001.[/font]

After disclosures about the National Security Agency’s stealth campaign to counter Internet privacy protections, a congressman has proposed legislation that would prohibit the agency from installing “back doors” into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications.

Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is also a physicist, said Friday that he believed the N.S.A. was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced.

“We pay them to spy,” Mr. Holt said. “But if in the process they degrade the security of the encryption we all use, it’s a net national disservice.”...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/us/politics/legislation-seeks-to-bar-nsa-tactic-in-encryption.html?pagewanted=all

[gordianot]

1. Just wondering what might happen if a rouge NSA employee might desire to cash in?

That would never happen, Oh no I forgot the NSA is all about security. Surely they would never want to betray the Corporations who pay for cyber security. Right?

[formercia]

7. NSA Contractors are the Real Problem

Who knows. The Contractors can easily convert the NSA Programs into a massive Corporate Spy Network. Even if the NSA gets completely shut-down, the Contractors have all they need and the experienced Help to do it with. Perhaps they already have, at Taxpayers' expense.

The Genie might just not want to go back into the Bottle.

[gordianot]

9. I am thinking the same way. Small wonder the ex KGB agent in Russia is acting so smug and cocky.

I seem to remember him saying life in Russia will not be so easy for his new resident. What a gift delivered at taxpayer expense.

[woo me with science]

2. No half fixes. Spying on Americans must end.

The mass spying programs must be eliminated. The massive data center in Utah must be torn down, and all information already collected must be completely destroyed. If the government needs information on a specific person, they must show probable cause and obtain a specific warrant meeting all conditions specified by the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[cui bono]

3. Yes please.

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, let's address much more closely whom it is they are supposed to spy on.

"Everybody and everything we can" is much too broad. Start with probable cause and tighten it up from there.

[bemildred]

5. And no more private spies paid from the public till. nt

[Lasher]

6. Easier said than done.

These intelligence gathering agencies are pervasive. Didn't like the Information Awareness Office? Lots of us didn't, so Congress defunded it - just like they did the Contras in Nicaragua. But true to form, Poindexter and his pals did an end run around those pesky politicians and their funding rules. The agency's projects merely continued under different names. If NSA's PRISM looks a lot like the IAO's TIA, we shouldn't be surprised.

[cstanleytech]

8. Now really, who here thinks the NSA wouldnt try to exploit loopholes such

as getting a 3rd party to get the backdoors installed?