LEAKED! Here's The White House's Draft Cybersecurity Executive Order. Earlier this week, we wrote about how the White House was working on an executive order to act as a "stand in" for cybersecurity legislation that has so far failed to pass Congress (CISPA passed in the House, but a different effort, the Cybersecurity Act, failed in the Senate, and it would have been difficult to get the two houses aligned anyway).
Last weekend Jason Miller from Federal News Radio wrote about a draft he saw... but failed to share the actual draft. We got our hands on a draft (and confirmed what it was with multiple sources) and wanted to share it, as these kinds of things deserve public scrutiny and discussion. It's embedded below. As expected, it does have elements of the Lieberman/Collins bill (to the extent that the White House actually can do things without legislation). It's also incredibly vague. There is, as expected, plans concerning information sharing -- but again, they're left pretty empty on specifics. Zday 2010 "Social Pathology" Lecture, by Peter Joseph.
Top 374 keywords the U.S. government monitors. Three months ago, a list of keywords was released by the Dept. for Homeland Security after the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sued the government for withholding the document.
The story has stirred up again by a couple of recent media reports have gotten the social networks sharing the media reports like wildfire. This got me thinking. The U.S. government may not be monitoring everything you say on social media sites, it monitors hundreds of seemingly obvious keywords every minute of the day --- and some that are just plain bizarre. The 39-page "2011 Analyst's Desktop Binder", emblazoned with the Homeland Security seal, dedicates four pages to words ranging from weather terms and cyber security to "south-west border" words and health related terms.
As we head into the summer season, you may want to think twice before tweeting about barbeque "pork" or how the "cloud" is ruining the weather --- a thoughtless comment that could end up with your Twitter account being monitored. Top Secret America: Who is TSA? US-CERT - United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. Chief Information Officers Council. Cybersecurity. President Obama has declared that the “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.”
As a result, the President directed a top-to-bottom review of the Federal Government's efforts to defend our information and communications infrastructure, which resulted in a report titled the Cyberspace Policy Review. To implement the results of this review, the President has appointed Howard Schmidt to serve at the U.S. Cybersecurity Coordinator and created the Cybersecurity Office within the National Security Staff, which works closely with the Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel, the Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and the National Economic Council. Technology. In the face of unprecedented challenges, technological advances can provide a powerful engine for advancing economic growth and new opportunity.
It requires policy leadership that understands the immense transformative power of technology and innovation. Harnessing the full power and potential of new technologies can improve the lives of all Americans. Creating a policy environment that fosters technological innovation can help create new jobs, improve the environment, help solve our energy crisis, reduce health care costs, fuel economic growth, extend opportunities to a new generation of Americans, and help make Americans more safe and secure.
The Obama Administration and the Office of Science and Technology Policy is committed to advancing a comprehensive technology and innovation plan that will: