Before we get into what those new powers are we want to take the time to reiterate something here; Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about Facebook, what they will do with your data, and their support for CISPA. Zuckerberg made the statement that they support CISPA, but that all your data is safe (honest they won’t share it). In fact Joel Kaplan, VP for US Public Policy, recently said
“The overriding goal of any cybersecurity bill should be to protect the security of networks and private data, and we take any concerns about how legislation might negatively impact Internet users’ privacy seriously. As a result, we’ve been engaging directly with key lawmakers as well as industry and consumer groups about potential changes to the bill to help address privacy concerns”
So now that we see this let’s talk about those new powers that congress is proposing. The new amendment to CISPA would grant the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the powers to “Intercept, Acquire, Retain”, and to “Use” any and all data that travels over networks run by the US government OR (and this is the kicker here) run by carriers on its behalf. This later bit would include companies like AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, and more (Almost any carrier could be added to this list really). All DHS has to do is say that the monitoring is to ward off “Cybersecurity threats” and it is all good.
So add a little salt to the wound this move would mean that any government housing (including low rest or rent subsidized) would fall under this type of monitoring. Of course it goes without saying that all military traffic (even from base housing) would be subject to this.
Why the move after all the PR? Well you see the DHS has been trying to get a nice monitoring network in place for a long time. This has been under the heading of the Einstein project which currently only monitors the gates to government facilities. DHS has been petitioning congress to expand the monitoring capabilities to include private entities and even residential area all in the name of better cyber security. For the most part these requests have been denied, but now that CISPA is here, it looks like DHS and some of their supporters in congress are trying to put this back in place.
CISPA is becoming a more and more dangerous law as amendments like this one are proposed. This little addition is not an official part of the bill yet, but you can bet that there will be some whispering into the ears of the top people saying that this is a great idea as long as it can be used to further protect intellectual property like it says in the original loose definition of the bill. We are sure that the opposition to CISPA will pick up and as always we do expect to hear from the Anonymous movement on this one. Already the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have been very outspoken on this. The crucial question is; will congress listen again?
Discuss this in our Forum
From The Blog
-
ConnectWise Slash and Grab Flaw Once Again Shows the Value of Input Validation We talk to Huntress About its Impact
Written by Sean KalinichAlthough the news of the infamous ConnectWise flaw which allowed for the creation of admin accounts is a bit cold, it still is one that…Written on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 12:44 in Security Talk Read 679 times Read more...
-
Social Manipulation as a Service – When the Bots on Twitter get their Check marks
Written by Sean KalinichWhen I started DecryptedTech it was to counter all the crap marketing I saw from component makers. I wanted to prove people with a clean…Written on Monday, 04 March 2024 16:17 in Editorials Read 1565 times Read more...
-
To Release or not to Release a PoC or OST That is the Question
Written by Sean KalinichThere is (and always has been) a debate about the ethics and impact of the release of Proof-of-Concept Exploit for an identified vulnerability and Open-Source…Written on Monday, 26 February 2024 13:05 in Security Talk Read 1099 times Read more...
-
There was an Important Lesson Learned in the LockBit Takedown and it was Not About Threat Groups
Written by Sean KalinichIn what could be called a fantastic move, global law enforcement agencies attacked and took down LockBit’s infrastructure. The day of the event was filled…Written on Thursday, 22 February 2024 12:20 in Security Talk Read 1068 times Read more...
-
NetSPI’s Offensive Security Offering Leverages Subject Matter Experts to Enhance Pen Testing
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 Las Vegas. The term offensive security has always been an interesting one for me. On the surface is brings to mind reaching…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:05 in Security Talk Read 2120 times Read more...
-
Black Kite Looks to Offer a Better View of Risk in a Rapidly Changing Threat Landscape
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 – Las Vegas. Risk is an interesting subject and has many different meanings to many different people. For the most part Risk…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 14:56 in Security Talk Read 1837 times Read more...
-
Microsoft Finally Reveals how they Believe a Consumer Signing Key was Stollen
Written by Sean KalinichIn May of 2023 a few sensitive accounts reported to Microsoft that their environments appeared to be compromised. Due to the nature of these accounts,…Written on Thursday, 07 September 2023 14:40 in Security Talk Read 2109 times Read more...
-
Mandiant Releases a Detailed Look at the Campaign Targeting Barracuda Email Security Gateways, I Take a Look at What this all Might Mean
Written by Sean KalinichThe recent attack that leveraged a 0-Day vulnerability to compromise a number of Barracuda Email Security Gateway appliances (physical and virtual, but not cloud) was…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 16:09 in Security Talk Read 2088 times Read more...
-
Threat Groups Return to Targeting Developers in Recent Software Supply Chain Attacks
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a topic of conversation that really needs to be talked about in the open. It is the danger of developer systems (personal and…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 13:29 in Security Talk Read 1875 times Read more...
Recent Comments
- Sean, this is a fantastic review of a beautiful game. I do agree with you… Written by Jacob 2023-05-19 14:17:50 Jedi Survivor – The Quick, Dirty, and Limited Spoilers Review
- Great post. Very interesting read but is the reality we are currently facing. Written by JP 2023-05-03 02:33:53 The Dangers of AI; I Think I Have Seen this Movie Before
- I was wondering if you have tested the microphone audio frequency for the Asus HS-1000W? Written by Maciej 2020-12-18 14:09:33 Asus HS-1000W wireless headset impresses us in the lab
- Thanks for review. I appreciate hearing from a real pro as opposed to the blogger… Written by Keith 2019-06-18 04:22:36 The Red Hydrogen One, Possibly One of the Most “misunderstood” Phones Out
- Have yet to see the real impact but in the consumer segment, ryzen series are… Written by sushant 2018-12-23 10:12:12 AMD’s 11-year journey to relevance gets an epic finish.
Most Read
- Microsoft Fail - Start Button Back in Windows 8.1 But No Start Menu Written on Thursday, 30 May 2013 15:33 in News Be the first to comment! Read 116512 times Read more...
- We take a look at the NETGEAR ProSafe WNDAP360 Dual-Band Wireless Access Point Written on Saturday, 07 April 2012 00:17 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 87449 times Read more...
- Synology DS1512+ Five-Bay NAS Performance Review Written on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 20:31 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 81992 times Read more...
- Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Design And Feature Review Written on Sunday, 19 August 2012 22:35 in Enthusiast Motherboards Be the first to comment! Read 80303 times Read more...
- The Asus P8Z77-M Pro Brings Exceptional Performance and Value to the Lab Written on Monday, 23 April 2012 13:02 in Consumer Motherboards Be the first to comment! Read 70953 times Read more...
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 09:22
New Proposed Amendment to CISPA Could Grant the US DHS More Power to "Monitor" the Internet
Written by Sean KalinichReading time is around minutes.
After working so very hard (and unsuccessfully) to convince everyone that CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) would not be like SOPA and that it is all good for everyone, it seems that the lawmakers involved in it just could not resist adding in a special little touch. There is an amendment to CISPA that would grant the Department of Homeland Security some brand new powers over all that data.
Published in
News
Tagged under
Latest from Sean Kalinich
- ConnectWise Slash and Grab Flaw Once Again Shows the Value of Input Validation We talk to Huntress About its Impact
- Social Manipulation as a Service – When the Bots on Twitter get their Check marks
- To Release or not to Release a PoC or OST That is the Question
- There was an Important Lesson Learned in the LockBit Takedown and it was Not About Threat Groups
- NetSPI’s Offensive Security Offering Leverages Subject Matter Experts to Enhance Pen Testing
Leave a comment
Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.