President Obama Signs 'Secret Directive' On Cybersecurity

by Mike Masnick

While we're hearing that the Senate is likely to take up (though not pass) the Cybersecurity Act yet again either today or tomorrow, and the White House is still sitting on a cybersecurity "executive order," in the meantime it's being reported that President Obama has signed a "secret directive" to allow the military to "act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks." This is limited to the military, but that means we're talking about the NSA (which is a part of the Defense Department). Considering that it seems to view a stronger offensive effort (i.e., collecting all data) a key part of a strong "defense," this is worrisome.

The really troubling part in all of this is the really unnecessary level of secrecy. We keep being told scary bogeyman stories about online attacks without any evidence or proof. And now the President is signing a "secret" order allowing the military to do more in response? Without any real scrutiny, it's not difficult to see how these things expand unceasingly and are wide open for abuse. Given the NSA's track record here, it's inevitable that these efforts will be massively abused.

SHARE:

Email This

Latest Big Brother/Orwellian
- Orwell Revisited: Privacy in the Age of Surveillance
- NSA Boss Asks Congress For Blanket Immunity For Companies That Help NSA Spy On Everyone
- Glenn Greenwald "He Was Concerned That The NSA Is Destroying Privacy Globally!"
- 14-Year-Old Faces Year In Jail Over Pro-Gun T-Shirt
- If You've Got Nothing To Hide, You've Actually Got Plenty To Hide
- Miss Alabama Is Happy The NSA Spies On Her
- Yahoo! Fought Back Against PRISM, Lost In Secret Ruling
- Edward Snowdens father: If we sacrifice our freedoms due to terrorism the terrorists have already won

Comments

Add Comment

Page 1 of 1

jujubmuse

Posted: Nov 15 2012, 1:17 PM

Link

7630

Obama is no different than Bush & Romney. This is getting out of hand.

Add Comment

Name

Comment

* No HTML

Verification *

Please Enter the Verification Code Seen Below

PLEASE NOTE

Please see our About Page, our Disclaimer, and our Comments Policy.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.

About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy