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 |  Subject: Why The NSA Can't Be Trusted to Run U.S. Cybersecurity Programs posted  Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:08 am | |
| This week, the Senate will be voting on a slew of amendments to the newest version of the Senate's cybersecurity bill.
Senators John McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchison have proposed several
amendments that would hand the reins of our nation's cybersecurity
systems to the National Security Agency (NSA). All of the cybersecurity
bills that have been proposed would provide avenues for companies to
collect sensitive information on users and pass that data to the
government. Trying to strike the balance between individual privacy and
facilitating communication about threats is a challenge, but one thing
is certain: the NSA has proven it can't be trusted with that
responsibility. The NSA's dark history of repeated privacy violations,
flouting of domestic law, and resistance to transparency makes it clear
that the nation's cybersecurity should not be in its hands.
In case you need a refresher, here's an overview of why handing cybersecurity to the NSA would be a terrible idea:
- An executive order generally prohibits NSA from conducting intelligence on Americans' domestic activities Executive Order 12333 signed by President Reagan in 1981 (and amended a few times since1), largely prohibits the NSA from spying on domestic activities:
no foreign intelligence collection by such elements [of
the Intelligence Community] may be undertaken for the purpose of
acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of United
States persons. If amended, the Cybersecurity Act would
allow the NSA to gain information related to "cybersecurity threat
indicators," which would allow it to collect vast quantities of data
that could include personally identifiable information of U.S. persons
on American soil. Law enforcement and civilian agencies are tasked with
investigating and overseeing domestic safety. The NSA, on the other
hand, is an unaccountable military intelligence agency that is supposed
to focus on foreign signals intelligence--and it's frankly dangerous to
expand the NSA's access to information about domestic communications.
- NSA has a dark history of violating Americans' constitutional rights In the 1960's, a Congressional investigation, led by four-term Senator Frank Church, found that the NSA had engaged
in widespread and warrantless spying on Americans citizens. Church was
so stunned at what he found, he remarked that the National Security
Agency's "capability at any time could be turned around on the American
people, andno American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything."
(emphasis added) The investigation led to the passage of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provided stronger privacy
protections for Americans' communications--that is, until it was
weakened by the USA-PATRIOT Act and other reactions to 9/11.
- NSA has continued its warrantless wiretapping scandal In 2005, the New York Times revealed
that the NSA set up a massive warrantless wiretapping program shortly
after 9/11, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and several federal
laws. This was later confirmed by virtually every major media organization in the country. It led to Congressional investigations and several ongoing lawsuits, including EFF's. Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act to granttelecom companies retroactive immunity
for participating in illegal spying and severely weaken privacy
safeguards for Americans communicating overseas.Since the FISA
Amendments Act (FAA) passed, the NSA has continued collecting emails of
Americans. A 2009 New York Times investigation described
how a "significant and systemic" practice of "overcollection" of
communications resulted in the NSA's intercepting millions of purely
domestic emails and phone calls between Americans. In addition,
documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request
by the ACLU, although heavily redacted, revealed "that violations [of
the FAA and the Constitution] continued to occur on a regular basis
through at least March 2010"-- the last month anyone has public data
for.
- NSA recently admitted to violating the Constitution. Just last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence--which oversees the NSA--begrudgingly acknowledged
that "on at least one occasion" the secret FISA court "held that some
collection"¦ used by the government was unreasonable under the Fourth
Amendment." Wired called
it a "federal sidestep of a major section of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act," and it confirmed the many reports over the last few
years: the NSA has violated the Constitution.
- NSA keeps much of what it does classified and secret
Because cybersecurity policy is inescapably tied to our online civil
liberties, it's essential to maximize government transparency and
accountability here. The NSA may be the worst government entity on this
score. Much of the NSA's work is exempt from Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) disclosure because Congress generally shielded NSA activities
from FOIA2.
Even aside from specific exemption statutes, much information about NSA
activities is classified on national security grounds. The NSA has also
stonewalled organizations trying to bring public-interest issues to
light by claiming the "state secrets" privilege in court. EFF has been involved
in lawsuits challenging the NSA's warrantless surveillance program
since 2006. Despite years of litigation, the government continues to
maintain that the "state secrets" privilege prevents any challenge from
being heard. Transparency and accountability simply are not the NSA's
strong suit.
We remain unconvinced that we need any of the proposed cybersecurity
bills, but we're particularly worried about attempts to deputize the
NSA as the head of our cybersecurity systems. And even the NSA has admitted that it does "not want to run cyber security for the United States government."
Thankfully, new privacy changes in the cybersecurity bill
heading towards the Senate floor have explicitly barred intelligence
agencies like the NSA from serving as the center of information
gathering for cybersecurity. We need to safeguard those protections and
fend off amendments that give additional authority to the NSA. We're
asking concerned individuals to use our Stop Cyber Spying tool to tweet at their Senators or use the American Library Association's simple tool
to call Senators. We need to speak out in force this week to ensure
that America's cybersecurity systems aren't handed to the NSA.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/why-nsa-cant-be-trusted-run-us-cybersecurity-programs |
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