NSA Spy Programmes Will ‘Break The Internet’ Says Google Boss
Eric Schmidt’s warnings at Silicon Valley panel
By: Sasha Sutton
on 9th October 2014 @ 3.36pm
<http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.neonnettle.com/news/1205-nsa-spy-programmes-will-break-the-internet-says-google-boss>
[image: feature image number one]
*Edward Snowden’s leaked information pertaining to the ongoing surveillance
of the internet by US National Security Agency
<http://www.neonnettle.com/tags/nsa> (NSA) and its British counterpart the
General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have sparked a furious debate
about government access to data. But Google
<http://www.neonnettle.com/tags/google> Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has
warned that if such surveillance programs are not reformed, they will have
detrimental effects on the tech industry and even ‘break the internet’.*
“We’re screwing around with those kinds of concepts without understanding
that this is a national industry”, said Google Executive Chairman Eric
Schmidt at the Silicon Valley panel, reports Wired
<http://www.wired.com/2014/10/us-spy-programs-may-break-internet-reformed-google-leader-says/>
.
“What’s going to happen is that governments will bring in bad laws and say
‘we want our own internet and don’t want to work with others’. The cost of
that is huge to knowledge and science, and has huge implications”.
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“The simplest outcome is that we end up breaking the internet”.
The discussion panel organised by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and also
involved tech industry bosses Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith, Ramsey
Homsany from Dropbox and Facebook Vice President Colin Stretch addressed
the effects NSA surveillance programs have had on the tech industry and the
privacy of civilians not only on US soil, but even international civilians
and world leaders.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
<https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/how-it-works>, in the weeks after the 9/11
World Trade Centre attack, Bush authorised the NSA to conduct surveillance
without warrants, and when the programme was eventually exposed that Bush
only detailed of a small amount of the program which the administration
called the ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program’, which monitored 500 to 1,000
US individuals suspected of having connections to Al-Qaeda.
But leaked information and disclosed documents have increasingly revealed
that not only are criminal suspects targeted, but also thousands of
innocent civilians. The government convinced major telecoms companies to
hand over call records, but even more shocking have real-time access to
phones and internet traffic. BBC News
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23123964> also reports that the
NSA’s British counterpart GCHQ was tapping fibre-optic cables that carried
global communications and were sharing the data with the US spy agency and
also directly infiltrated the servers of high-profile internet firms such
as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo to gather information via the
NSA’s PRISM program.
With growing knowledge of these spy activities, companies such as Google
and Apple have stepped up their encryption, which unsurprising irked law
authorities. The Register reports
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/09/nsa_spying_will_break_the_internet_silicon_valley_bosses_warn/>
that Schmidt said the government shouldn’t be surprised that his and other
firms have taken such measures as a result of secret spy programs. Smith
echoed this notion saying, “There are two ways to protect privacy, either
through stronger technology or better laws. And in the absence of better
laws, we’re all being asked to invest in stronger technology”.
[image: feature image number two]
These ‘better laws’ could allegedly become a reality, after President Obama
proposed an end to bulk collection of phone data. “I have decided that the
best path forward is that the government should not collect or hold this
data in bulk”, Obama said in a statement according to The Guardian
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/obama-proposes-end-nsa-bulk-data-collection>
.
“I am confident that this approach can provide our intelligence and law
enforcement professionals the information they need to keep us safe while
addressing the legitimate privacy concerns that have been raised”.
But experts are still worried and unconvinced, as Obama’s proposals ignore
the possibility that the NSA is collecting other types of information such
as internet metadata, location data and financial information.
“Unless legislation addresses all types of data, not just phone records,
then businesses remain at risk of receiving an order to turn over all of
their customers and to keep quiet about it”, said Harley Geiger, from the
Centre for Democracy and Technology.
Senator Wyden echoed this at the Silicon Valley discussion. “The US
government should stop requiring American companies to participate in the
suspicionless collection of their customers’ data, and begin the process of
rebuilding trust both at home and abroad”.
Contact author Sasha Sutton:
Google Plus: Sasha Sutton
<https://plus.google.com/102581160633545801190/posts>
Twitter: @SashaEricaS <https://twitter.com/SashaEricaS>
On Thursday, October 9, 2014 10:35:32 AM UTC-5, Travis wrote:
>
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>
>
> http://www.cnbc.com/id/102067495
>
>
>
> The one cybersecurity threat everyone misses
>
> Kate Kelly <http://www.cnbc.com/id/37062546>
>
> Tuesday, 7 Oct 2014
>
>
>
> Companies must be increasingly watchful of security failings at their
> smaller-sized vendors, a point of particular focus for cyberattacks, senior
> executives at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference said Tuesday.
>
> "More and more as the large companies put their defenses in place, the
> adversaries are going toward their suppliers," said Sondra Barbour, *Lockheed
> Martin* <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/LMT>'s head of information systems.
> "We really need to pay attention to this."
>
> After a spate of high-profile cybersecurity breaches at major companies
> like *Target* <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TGT> and, more recently, *Home
> Depot* <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/HD> and *JPMorgan Chase*
> <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/JPM>, the biggest players for the most part
> have strong protections to wall off their proprietary information, Barbour
> and others said. But smaller vendors who can't afford expensive security
> measures—and yet have links to some of their larger client's sensitive
> data—are now in the crosshairs of sophisticated hackers.
>
> "They're scanning thousands of businesses every single hour," said Denise
> Wood, chief information officer for *FedEx*
> <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FDX>. "They get into Fazio Bros. Air
> Conditioner Repair," she said, "and then they're in your network."
>
> <p>Tracking hackers in real time</p> <p>Insight to technology which can
> track hackers in real time, with Stephen Purpura, Context Relevant CEO, and
> former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Richard Clarke of Context
> Product Security. </p>
>
> "There's a vibrant black market for all these vulnerabilities," Wood said.
>
> *Read More**Hackers tried breaching JPM, others*
> <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102065370>
>
> Barbour, Wood and Jamie Miller, chief information officer of *General
> Electric* <http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GE>, talked about their own
> policies of creating more and more elaborate cyberattack scenarios and
> running fire drills to problem-solve and communicate in case of a future
> hack.
>
> The lack of emphasis on such practice sessions was one of the problems
> that Target faced last year, Wood said.
>
> "They didn't include cyberattack in their crisis-response plans, and I
> think it's a common oversight," she said. Fedex, is taking note, she added,
> "We already had cyber in there, we're just drilling it much more." Target
> officials did not respond to a request for comment.
>
> *Read More**Hackers' attack struck systems at 10 companies*
> <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102059105>
>
> The executives also reflected on the problem of insider cybersecurity
> issues at a time when the disclosures made by *Edward Snowden*
> <http://www.cnbc.com/id/100822032>, a former Booz Allen Hamilton
> contractor who exposed U.S. government secrets to which he had access as a
> consultant, is top of mind.
>
> "A trusted insider can be just as damaging, or worse," Miller said.
>
>
>
>
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