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What’s All This Talk About the Gov’t Snooping on Emails for Cybersecurity? Does It Affect Me?

Mar. 22, 2013 12:10pm
Government Plans to Use Defense Contractors to Monitor Infrastructure Companies for Cybersecurity

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

On Thursday, Reuters put out a story headlined “US plan calls for more scanning of private Web traffic, email.” Like the recent news of law enforcement calling upon the government to expand its ability to access emails and text messages for investigations, this story was sure to raise some questions as well.

What’s this all about?Β 

What Reuters is reporting is a continuation of an executive order on cybersecurity that was signed last month. President Barack Obama announced his signing of the cybersecurity executive order and a new directive to enhance infrastructure security in his February State of the Union address. Both items were to facilitate better sharing of informationΒ regarding cyberattacks between the private sector maintaining critical systems and the government.

Is this new?

As we explain above, the executive order that is calling for more communication with the government about cyberattacks is not new. Legislation was introduced last year and re-introduced this year that would serve a similar purpose as well. Reuter’s story delves into a plan that might help facilitate this type of communication:

The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country’s private, civilian-run infrastructure.

As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails and Web surfing scanned as a precaution against cyber attacks.

How is the government planning to snoop on employee emails and Internet movements while respecting privacy?

Reuters reported that the Department of Homeland Security is planning on using telecoms and defense contractors with security clearances to process the communications of companies who choose to participate:

The telecom companies will not report back to the government on what they see, except in aggregate statistics, a senior DHS official said in an interview granted on condition he not be identified.

“That allows us to provide more sensitive information,” the official said. “We will provide the information to the security service providers that they need to perform this function.” Procedures are to be established within six months of the order.

What do privacy advocates have to say?

If the program is voluntary — meaning private businesses would have to choose to participate in allowing their communications and online movements to be scanned in cybersecurity efforts — are there even privacy concerns? Reuters reportedΒ senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier FoundationΒ Lee Tien saying that the program could raise questions about other activities that companies monitoring on behalf of the government could be collecting information on:

One technique for examining email and other electronic packets en route, called deep packet inspection, has stirred controversy for years, and some cybersecurity providers said they would not be using that. In deep packet inspection, communication companies or others with network access can examine all the elements of a transmission, including the content of emails.

Read more about the privacy concerns some have with “deep packet inspection,” which was proposed by the U.N. Telecommunications Union.

Does it really affect me?

Unlike the recent push by law enforcement to expand their access to private, online communications for investigations, this is directed toward private sector companies managing critical infrastructure. Reuters reported a DHS official saying the government is not planning a cybersecurity program like this with communication companies that serve the public at large.

If you worked for a company that maintains critical infrastructure that also decided to participate in the government’s program to monitor cybersecurity, then yes, this could impact you in the sense that, according to the plan, online movements and communications at work could be monitored by a defense contractor. The statistics from such monitoring is what would be reported to the government.

A similar bill that was killed in congress last year but was reintroduced in February — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act (CISPA) that would facilitated sharing of information between the government and private sector regarding cyberattacks — does have some privacy advocates concerned over how it would impact individuals. Privacy advocates have for the past year been expressing discontent over the bill and its vague definitions as to what information could be shared.

The Huffington Post reported one of the groups re-launching a campaign against CISPA saying in a statement Tuesday that it would “allow companies to share private user information with the government in ways that are currently illegal, and provide legal immunity to companies that share information for vaguely defined ‘national security’ purposes.”

James Lewis, a senior fellow and director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, though said this sentiment is not how the bill would work:

Under the current legislation, the government and companies would not share with each other the content of private emails, he said. Instead, a machine would search Internet traffic for patterns of “ones and zeros” in computer code that would signal a potential cyberattack, Lewis said.

Read more about the plans being developed to spot cybersecurity issues in Reuters’ report here.

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Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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Comments (33)

  • Junter
    Posted on March 24, 2013 at 2:42am

    I thought the idea of a government was to protect and provide for it’s people. Why does the US government feel more and more like prison guards keeping prisoners in check?

    Report this comment

    Junter  
  • OUTLAW_WEALTH
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 6:17pm

    here a little there a little. We’ll get this America thing over and done with, and establish a one world communist dictatorship eventually, while Americans sleep and go on watching Netflix.

    Russia and China a preparing for war, the US globalists are preparing to go to war against all those nations who won’t accept the petro dollar, the so-called “axis of evil”, whom they will vilify and stir us up to anger against, so we can help them accomplish their agenda. The 3 resistors are North Korea, Libya, and Iran, who are a threat to the New World Order and must be conquered. This is why the Administration of both Republicans and Democrats kow tow to Israel, run by a globalist, Israel is a socialist nation, look it up.

    Report this comment

    OUTLAW_WEALTH  
  • tolerence
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 4:21pm

    going into our emails isn’t any different then going into ouir mailbox’s and opening&reading our mail,how far is too far with this Administration?

    Report this comment

    tolerence  
  • DougHuffman
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 2:43pm

    It does not affect anyone that understands ‘P versus NP problem’ and spy-versus-spy solution to encryption. Decryption is evermore expensive while encryption is free with PGP.

    MOLON LABE Lord of Flies’ putz

    Report this comment

    DougHuffman  
  • GuruMeditation
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 2:03pm

    Here’s another crumb. Be sure to store it forever.

    Report this comment

    GuruMeditation  
  • h20sue
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:42pm

    For the people, by the people…… Which people? Certainlly not US TAXPAYERS!

    Report this comment

    h20sue  
  • h20sue
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:37pm

    If and when a new president is elected after Obama is out, can he/she turn everything around (that which) “Obama” has ruined? We’re headed to a communist country. Obama Care being the start of a bad situation. We can hardly afford food, much less health care. Obama’s living on another communist planet. Shame we can’t shuttle him back to this planet.
    As a proud republican and God fearing woman, I’m sick to death of the direction this country is going. I feel we’re being taken over by liberal yahoo’s who do not believe in God, hate conservatives, and want to teach our children and grandchildren being queer is not a sin. IT IS. My family can only pray that our Heavenly Father is listening and will take these people in his arms and lead them down a more respectable path. God help us and the country we’ve loved and respected for so many years.

    Report this comment

    h20sue  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:35pm

    Do you remember months ago, when the UN started crying about the Americans having too much access to weapons and that they should come more in line with world gun-standards? What happened? About a month later Americans started being killed by the 10′s and 20′s by people who then killed themselves. Even children. Then…suddenly we have a “gun debate”…The obama regime is a bunch of murderers. If they will stoop to murder do you think they would balk at listening and reading your every word??? We have a GESTAPO on our hands called the DHS.

    Report this comment

    thegreatcarnac  
  • Melvin Spittle
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:23pm

    Ultimately this will fail to solve the problem of foreign cyber attacks. The only solution will be biometric individual credentials for access to the internet. This will serve as fraud proof authentication but will require every individual on the planet to have an associated biometric ID that authenticates a living person through a biometric implanted RFID powered by your own body, coded with an assigned IPv6 address that is associated with your individual DNA as the basis for unique encrypted keys. This technology is here now and is viable. The implementation of IPv6 made this a reality. You will not be able to access the internet, buy, sell, trade, or travel without it. This is the ultimate power play and would be a governments wet dream come true.

    When this happens, the government will be able to:
    1. Know where you are and have been at all times
    2. Know what you possess and when you acquired the possession and from whom it was acquired
    3. Develop a history of who you associate with to include organizations
    4. Complete medical history

    The benefits are obvious and will be used to gain acceptance. Create a real crisis with this presented as the solution.

    How’s that for a tin hat? We are getting close and giving up liberty for security a bit at a time. The right crisis would accelerate implementation.

    Report this comment

    Melvin Spittle  
  • putyourhairup
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:08pm

    They said:”Department of Homeland Security is planning on using telecoms and defense contractors with security clearances to process the communications”

    Translation: The illegal entity Homeland Security which violates the Constitution, will be hiring your phone and internet companies as well as private armies to spy on you.

    Report this comment

    putyourhairup  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:14pm

      Absolutely, Big Brother continues to expand and no one seems able to stop it.

      Report this comment

      Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • ComeTakeIt
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:22pm

      Exactly, good translation.

      I think the only answer the average citizen has is to UNPLUG, which is nearly impossible in this world. We have been blessed with the highest standard of living in history. We may also be cursed with the darkest period in history.

      Report this comment

      ComeTakeIt  
  • RaydocX
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:03pm

    A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge addresses societies where the people in control gain the ability to snoop into the citizens’ every waking moment.

    In short, those societies fail… cannot succeed. The time and energy invested in proving your distrust of others ruins the ability to function. We’ve seen it with the secret police in the Soviet Union and nations like Iraq and Egypt and even Pakistan… a few build a fiefdom of their own, protecting the few elites, but eventually it all comes down, either because the elites see and hear only what they want to, or because the commoners rise up and throw off the tyrants.

    It effects every US citizen, even if you never use email or social media or look at the web… others you know do those things… your name gets mentioned, you wind up in the data that is being collected and mined.

    and contrary to what DHS or the scientists and researchers pushing this think, knowing every bit and byte of what anyone says and does online… what they spend and where, what they eat and where, still is not a look into the man or woman.

    Those seeking such intrusive ‘knoweledge’ of every citizen should stop and wonder what about their own make up leaves them so untrusting and so willing to violate privacies they would never surrender on the ‘chance’ that something might be prevented.

    Better to die free than live a slave takes on a new and ominous meaning, as DHS stockpiles the civilian tanks and billions of rounds…

    Report this comment

    RaydocX  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:47pm

    .
    I hope you Cybersecurity folks are looking see if you can figure this out….

    “ESAD then GFYS”

    Thank you,

    The Rest of US

    Report this comment

    SpankDaMonkey  
  • zgomer
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:45pm

    Just more scare tactics in this country…I am not scared…

    Report this comment

    zgomer  
  • FlagWavingPatriot
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:34pm

    Yes it affects you. And it affects me. That’s why I’m going to start posting in code.

    Arrybay ancay isskay ymay uttbay.

    Report this comment

    FlagWavingPatriot  
  • woodyee
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:31pm

    Hell yes it affects us!

    If anything the government does causes you to think before you speak, then the government is over-stepping it’s bounds. Ditto what you write. If anything the government does causes you to think before making a purchase you want to make, then it’s over stepping it’s bounds.

    Some folks are concerned about giving up a zip code because retailers might learn how to shop for them better? when the government is snooping on you and you say or do nothing about it, you’re giving up your freedoms!

    Report this comment

    woodyee  
  • pragmaticpatriot
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:27pm

    good thing i have a new tin foil hat, otherwise my thoughts would be read too. Just because im paranoid doesnt mean they arent out to get me

    It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.
    – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

    Report this comment

    pragmaticpatriot  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:23pm

    The SS is coming for yas.

    Report this comment

    SamIamTwo  
  • mrs.khuhnt
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:19pm

    One thing that disturbs me is that I now have files on my computer that are password protected and my virus program can’t open them and it can’t put them in the virus chest or delete them. I never had these password protected files before. Anyone know anything about this? Is it some sort of keystroke logger?

    Report this comment

    mrs.khuhnt  
    • Cavallo
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:32pm

      Don’t do any online banking with those things on your computer. You might have to take the thing in and have it cleaned.

      Report this comment

      Cavallo  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 3:49pm

      mrs.khuhnt

      I’m the local computer wiz here and you are a new troll.

      I have a policy of not helping trolls fix any computer issue.

      Report this comment

      The-Monk  
    • firearm
      Posted on March 23, 2013 at 12:07am

      Monk, that’s impressive!

      Report this comment

      firearm  
  • ltb
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:18pm

    β€œWhat’s all this talk about Hitler doing away with the Constitution? Does it affect me?” Said a German in 1933.

    Report this comment

    ltb  
  • Cavallo
    Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:17pm

    Remember the 4th amendment only applies to actual physical paper. It doesn’t apply to electronic messages. The founding fathers could never envision technologies like email and cell phones.

    Such is the logic of leftists towards other aspects of the bill of rights.

    Report this comment

    Cavallo  
    • ltb
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:24pm

      Yeppers. That’s the way those people think. They have no principles, no integrity and no concept of right and wrong, so they completely miss the point of the Constitution.

      Report this comment

      ltb  
    • Despiser25
      Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:44pm

      And yet these same leftists argue the merits of the 27 words of the 2nd amendment claiming the founders could never have envisioned Machine Guns… Its not strange that Liberal hypocrisy always goes against the individual. Marx is smiling broadly as he watches modern America descend into Socialism.

      This Govt does not have my consent to be governed in this way…

      Report this comment

      Despiser25  

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