U.S. Security Agencies Begging for a Cybersecurity "Cold War": Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

So the U.S. security establishment is salivating at the prospect of a new cybersecurity "Cold War." In an over-the-top op-ed in Tuesday's Washington Post, Mike McConnell issues a declaration that we are "fighting a cyber war today" and compares it to the nuclear showdown with the Soviets. McConnell exemplifies the security establishment as much as anyone — former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), former Director of National Intelligence, and currently executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, a private-sector refuge for former U.S. intelligence officials (and a company that stands to make large sums from consulting on cybersecurity). [ Read more ... ]

Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet: Via Threat Level.

The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence.

McConnell’s not dangerous because he knows anything about SQL injection hacks, but because he knows about social engineering:  McConnell is the nice-seeming guy who is willing and able to use fear-mongering to manipulate the federal bureaucracy for his own ends, while coming off like a straight shooter to those not in the know.

When he was head of the country’s national intelligence, he scared President Bush with visions of e-doom, prompting the president to sign a comprehensive secret order that unleashed tens of billions of dollars into the military’s black budget so they can start making firewalls and malware into military equipment. And now McConnell, back safely in civilian life as a vice president at the secretive defense contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, is out in front of Congress and the media, peddling the same Cybaremaggedon! gloom.

And now he says we need to re-engineer the internet. [ Read more ... ]

“Social Networking: The Challenges of Privacy and Openness” Video: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

CDT and TRUSTe recently hosted “Social Networking: The Challenges of Privacy and Openness,” a discussion in their continuing Internet Policy Series. A five-minute video recapping the highlights of the event can be found here.

Held on the Google Campus in Mountain View, CA, on Oct. 7, the discussion was moderated by Fred Vogelstein of Wired Magazine and included a potent lineup of speakers: Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow at ACLU Northern California; David Glazer, Engineering Director at Google and Board member of OpenSocial Foundation; and Tim Sparapani, Director of Public Policy at Facebook.

The speakers discussed the tensions that exist between privacy and openness in a social networking environment that is primarily intended for people to share information.

The discussion touched on trust between users and social networking sites, new definitions of privacy in the social networking world, the continuing evolution of users’ privacy expectations, and the limitations of giving users granular control of their personal information.

Read Original Article:(Via CDT - PolicyBeta.)

A Push to Rewrite Wiretap Law - washingtonpost.com: The Bush administration is pressing Congress this week for the authority to intercept, without a court order, any international phone call or e-mail between a surveillance target outside the United States and any person in the United States.

The proposal, submitted by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to congressional leaders on Friday, would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for the first time since 2006 so that a court order would no longer be needed before wiretapping anyone "reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States."

It would also give the attorney general sole authority to order the interception of communications for up to one year as long as he certifies that the surveillance is directed at a person outside the United States.

The administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have mounted a full-court press to get the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass the measure before lawmakers leave town this week for the August recess, trying to portray reluctant Democrats as weak on terrorism. [ Read more ... ]

Administration Seeks Overhaul of Patent System: "The goal is to improve the quality of patents, which should curb the rising wave of patent disputes and lawsuits, the director of the government's patent office said." [ Read more ... ]

No penalties against Palo Alto tech giant for failing to explain why a director quit: "'Spygate' -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s snooping on its board members and journalists -- spawned screaming headlines, congressional hearings, criminal probes and the dethroning of its board chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, but now it seems to be quietly wrapping up.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said it had settled administrative charges against Palo Alto's HP for failing to disclose why a director abruptly quit during the company's investigation into boardroom leaks.

The SEC did not impose a penalty, instead ordering HP to cease and desist from future violations of public reporting requirements. HP consented to the order without admitting or denying wrongdoing. [ Read more ... ]

New Wave of Spam Contains Alanchum Trojan: "PandaLabs has detected a new wave of spam containing the Alanchum.VL Trojan. This is a new variant from this family of malicious code generally designed to download all types of malware onto infected computers. In this case, Alanchum.VL has accounted for as much as 62 percent of malware detections reported per hour.

The real danger of Alanchum.VL lies in the fact that it downloads other malware. This variant in particular downloads the Cimuz.BE Trojan. This, in turn, monitors users' visits to certain Web sites in order steal data entered in these pages. [ Read more ... ]

McConnell Seeks to Boost U.S. Spy Powers - Forbes.com: "President Bush's spy chief is pushing to expand the government's surveillance authority at the same time the administration is under attack for stretching its domestic eavesdropping powers.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has circulated a draft bill that would expand the government's powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, liberalizing how that law can be used. [ Read more ... ]

The Now-What of Losing Customer Data: "An AmEx director of audit walks InfoSec attendees through the uncertainties associated with customer notification in cases of lost laptops, stolen BlackBerries or hacked databases.

(Via eWEEK Security.)