NSA Takes Over Internet Security from DHS

[kpete]

NSA Takes Over Internet Security from DHS
by emptywheel

That's not exactly what this article http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.nsa20sep20,0,5183239,full.story says--but it's close. The NSA--our nation's most effective spy agency--is going to adopt major new duties in policing our public internets.

In a major shift, the National Security Agency is drawing up plans for a new domestic assignment: helping protect government and private communications networks from cyberattacks and infiltration by terrorists and hackers, according to current and former intelligence officials.

The plan calls for the NSA to work with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to monitor such networks to prevent unauthorized intrusion, according to those with knowledge of what is known internally as the "Cyber Initiative."

Note the sources and level of classification and the implications of this move.

Details of the project are highly classified.

Current and former intelligence officials, including several NSA veterans, warned that the agency's venture into domestic computer and communications networks -- even if limited to protecting them -- could raise new privacy concerns.

"If you're going to do cybersecurity, you have to spy on Americans to secure Americans," said a former government official familiar with NSA operations. "It would be a very major step."

A former senior NSA official said the difference between monitoring networks in order to defend them and monitoring them to collect intelligence is very small.

The former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to protect relationships with intelligence agencies.

more at:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/09/nsa-takes-over-.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. "You have to spy on American to secure Americans."

Fucking BULLSHIT!

IMPEACH!

[baldguy]

2. So, does Agent Mike get to keep his seniority & pay grade?