http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3966
Cybersecurity Plan Doesn’t Breach Employee Privacy, Administration Says
September 19, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Featured Headlines, Govt, Surveillance, U.S., Workplace
Ellen Nakashima reports:
The Obama administration has agreed with its predecessor that a special surveillance program to monitor federal Internet traffic for malicious intrusions does not violate the privacy rights of government employees or others they communicate with.
By notifying government employees logging on to their computers that they have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” while using the network, the government’s Einstein 2 program is lawful, according to an Aug. 14 Justice Department memo that was released Friday.
That applies to a private citizen who, say, sends an e-mail to a government employee — even to the employee’s private account if he or she opens it at work, [If I send an email to my cousin, I never see that notice on her computer, but I'm covered by it? Bob] wrote David J. Barron, acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
Read more in The Washington Post.
Related: LEGAL ISSUES RELATING TO THE TESTING, USE, AND DEPLOYMENT OF AN INTRUSION-DETECTION SYSTEM (EINSTEIN 2.0) TO PROTECT UNCLASSIFIED COMPUTER NETWORKS IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH - January 2009 opinion from the OLC
[ From the Post article:
The memo's release is part of an Obama administration effort to be more transparent than its predecessor. It drew upon the legal analysis spelled out in a 35-page opinion dated Jan. 9 -- also released Friday -- that was written by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury, then acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel.
(Related)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022362.html
September 19, 2009
Legality of Intrusion-Detection System To Protect Unclassified Computers Networks In Executive Branch
In following this January 9, 2009 memo, Legal Issues Relating to the Testing, Use and Deployment of an Intrusion-Detection System (EINSTEIN 2.0) to Protect Unclassified Computer Networks in the Executive Branch, this DOJ memo released September 18, 2009: Legality of Intrusion-Detection System To Protect Unclassified Computers Networks In Executive Branch - "Operation of the EINSTEIN 2.0 intrusion-detection system complies with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the pen register and trap and trace provisions of chapter 206 of title 18, United States Code, provided that certain log-on banners or computer-user agreements are consistently adopted, implemented, and enforced by executive departments and agencies using the system. Operation of the EINSTEIN 2.0 system also does not run afoul of state wiretapping or communications privacy laws."
Department of Homeland Security Privacy Impact Assessment EINSTEIN 2, May 19, 2008. United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT): "EINSTEIN 2, will incorporate network intrusion detection technology capable of alerting the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US‐CERT) to the presence of malicious or potentially harmful computer network activity in federal executive agencies’ network traffic. EINSTEIN 2 principally relies on commercially available intrusion detection capabilities to increase the situational awareness of the US‐CERT. This network intrusion detection technology uses a set of pre‐defined signatures based upon known malicious network traffic."
Even if he was the best Chief of Police ever, this isn't the most productive way to deal with critics. (The article reads a bit different than this summary...)
Austin Police Want Identities of Online Critics
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 19, @08:14AM from the don't-call-them-skanks dept.
An anonymous reader writes
"The police chief in Austin, TX is not happy that people are voicing their disapproval of him via anonymous blog posts and comments. He claims that 'such posts erode public trust in the department.' The chief wants to find out who these people are and investigate and prosecute such posters for statements he deems defamatory and libelous. Interestingly, the article notes, 'the Associated Press has reported that most of the cases fail because statements of opinion are protected under the First Amendment.' One wonders if this is a legitimate problem that warrants public money to investigate, or whether it's that the people who deserve the most public scrutiny don't like it when others take issue with their job performance."
(Related)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3973
Facebook Six fight for right to bag boss
September 20, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Internet, Non-U.S., Workplace
Arjun Ramachandran and Asher Moses report that six prison workers in New South Wales, Australia received letters from the Corrective Services Department that they may be fired for comments they made on Facebook that the department describes as “bullying” and “harassment”.
The public sector union has taken the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission as a matter of free speech during the workers’ own time. The Commission resumes its hearing on Tuesday. According to the reporters:
The contentious comments were made on a Facebook group titled “Suggestions to help Big RON save a few clams”, which criticises State Government plans to privatise NSW prisons and suggests other ways that NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham could save money.
The page was set up in October last year when prison officers decided to vent their anger over government plans to privatise two of the state’s prisons - one at Parklea and another at Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, Public Service Association senior industrial officer Stewart Little said.
Read more in The Age.
(Related) The flip side?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3954
Newspaper faces backlash for outing Web critic
September 19, 2009 by Dissent under Breaches, Featured Headlines, Internet, U.S.
The Associated Press reports another story involving online anonymity and outing critics. In this case, a Wisconsin newspaper turned over the identity of a critic without any subpoena or court order…. and subsequently regretted it. The incident generated discussion, yet again, about whether anonymous critics are entitled to protection of their anonymity.
Getting named the local paper’s Person of the Year was supposed to be an honor for small-town politician Dean Zuleger. But the award only enraged many townspeople.
Readers anonymously flooded the Wausau Daily Herald’s Web site with comments bashing Zuleger’s salary, his management style, his weight.
“I have just two words for Dean Zuleger, and they are … A) anger management. B) salad bar. C) Rod Blagojevich. D) all of the above. T he correct answer is D.,” one posting read.
Zuleger, administrator of the Wausau suburb of Weston, demanded to know who was saying all those nasty things about him, and the paper did something unusual: It handed over one critic’s e-mail address.
Read more from The Associated Press.
Great for backups, also great for hackers trying to steal your data?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10356977-250.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
LogMeIn can control some PCs, even when off
by Rafe Needleman September 19, 2009 10:00 AM PDT
During a recent talk with LogMeIn CEO Michael Simon, I learned about the company's new LogMeIn Central dashboard for IT managers, designed to help them keep tabs on thousands of computers at a time.
… And I heard about a LogMeIn technology, just now reaching the market, that enables not just remote diagnostics of computers but also access to data on the hard drives of PCs that are turned completely off. Gulp.
That last technology, part of Intel's VPro system architecture, has just started to ship in a few new PCs. It's designed for corporate networks so that support personnel can get into a machine--to run a backup, for example--regardless of whether it's running Windows, has crashed into a blue screen, or has been shut down. As long as the PC is plugged into the wall and to an Ethernet connection, the computer, even though in an off state, will continue to draw a small amount of power (about 4 watts) while it monitors the network for control packets.
Google got it wrong?
DoJ Recommends NY Court Reject Google Book Deal
Posted by timothy on Saturday September 19, @03:29PM from the march-of-unprogress dept.
eldavojohn writes
"The BBC and others are reporting on the US Department of Justice's recommendation to a New York court that they reject the Google book deal. The deal has received considerable attention, but for the most part it has been negative."
Tools & Techniques If I was recording video of me getting a ticket, would I be committing another crime? How about if the video was streaming to my lawyers office?
http://lifehacker.com/5356438/turn-your-camera-phone-into-a-police+style-dash-cam
Turn Your Camera Phone into a Police-Style Dash Cam
By Jason Fitzpatrick, 4:00 PM on Sat Sep 19 2009
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