The people at the government entity that used to be known as “No Such Agency” have plans to invade our privacy – what little we have of it left; you’d think that keeping an eye on all the known places of trouble would keep them busy enough, but apparently the spy business is recession proof, and expanding.
The new plan calls for checking out things that have been around for a good, long while, and might be involved in something untoward such as causing a catastrophe at the worst time for many. Computers that are older and less secure are among the plans for a thorough check.
[PC World]
The NSA (National Security Agency) of the United States is implementing a new program to monitor for signs of cyber attacks against government assets, or public and private sector entities like power companies and water treatment plants–companies that make up the critical infrastructure of the nation. The “Perfect Citizen” program is invoking fears of “Big Brother” as well, though, as some question the motives of the NSA initiative.
The name–Perfect Citizen–seems overtly Orwellian. The first thing that pops into my mind when reading about this program is the movie Eagle Eye , or HAL from Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey saga. But, oppressive ‘Newspeak‘ naming aside, the premise of the program seems both valuable and long overdue.
The simple reality is that some private sector companies provide products and services that are essential to national defense and commerce, and provide prime targets for terrorist, or state-sponsored attacks against the United States. The critical dependence of the country on those companies means they must sacrifice some autonomy and privacy for the greater good.
This is a plausible story, but it is also an example of the slippery slope situation, where we lose any semblance of privacy in the long, involved process. The loss of privacy is one of the things that mirrors the bell, it cannot be unrung.
A report in the Wall Street Journal explains “Perfect Citizen will look at large, typically older computer control systems that were often designed without Internet connectivity or security in mind. Many of those systems–which run everything from subway systems to air-traffic control networks–have since been linked to the Internet, making them more efficient but also exposing them to cyber attack.”
Although the program will be focused on monitoring network activity and identifying suspected cyber attacks against government and critical infrastructure networks, Perfect Citizen will also yield benefits for other private sector companies that are not being actively monitored. The NSA will be able to collect intelligence related to the mechanics and strategies of cyber attacks that can be shared with and applied to network and computer security for all companies.
Rather than monitoring these things on the internet, this makes a perfect case for things that are not interconnected. This makes subverting them much more difficult, for then the only security needed is on location. Sure, there are many locations, but it is still much easier than defending across the internet and losing personal freedoms while a governmental entity grows ever larger.
The concern is that Perfect Citizen could be just the beginning, or that the NSA will overstep its bounds and essentially monitor all domestic network activity. Access to critical infrastructure networks might also provide the NSA with access to details regarding the power usage, or travel plans of companies and individual citizens.
It is a difficult balance to strike. The critical infrastructure does need to be protected, and the NSA seems like the agency to do it. The challenge is to gather intelligence and provide adequate protection for national security and the critical infrastructure, without infringing on the rights and privacy of private sector companies any more than necessary.
Given the recent history of the NSA, it is easy to jump to insidious conspiracy theory conclusions. However, this is a long overdue step in safeguarding the critical infrastructure of the nation, and will hopefully be a first step in fostering more cooperation between public and private sector–as well as between various private sector companies–to collaborate on intelligence gathering and effective defense against cyber attacks.
These last paragraphs are specially crafted to assuage any fears we have about our freedoms and privacy, and may have been right out of some manual from the agency that hovers between existence and non-existence.
The problem is that we must refer to the thoughts of our founding fathers, who knew that some things, like privacy, were worth defending to the very last man. With the changes that were begun by the Patriot Act (even in the title they try to make us feel as though it is a correct thing to do) there is a general acceptance of the loss of freedom in this nation. There is also the general move to identify anyone that asks you to think about the way that your government is growing (and I’m not talking about HHS here) as either unpatriotic or a nutcase. Look at how veterans, that have served their nation almost an entire lifetime, like Jesse Ventura are painted, when they question what has happened in the last ten years in this nation.
Each individual much weigh for himself how much they are willing to give up. At some point, we will either have a nation where we are totally dominated by a “Big Brother” government, that does not have our best interests in mind, or an uprising, of those who have the guts to do something. Something does not mean violence, it does mean action. It begins with the careful examination of politicians that are running for office, and then scrutinization of their deeds ostensibly done on our behalf.
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Sheeple are the friend of the Big Brother squad; those who cannot think clearly are the easiest to herd.
Too bad some think in these terms…
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