NSA to monitor private networks for cyberattacks

Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Friday, July 3, 2009

The Obama administration is going ahead with a controversial plan to have the National Security Agency screen government email and other official computer traffic passing over private networks.

The plan is part of a cybersecurity initiative launched by the Bush administration in 2008 and known as Einstein 3. The purpose of the program is to protect government computer systems from attack, and the Department of Homeland Security insists that only data going in and out of government systems will be subject to special screening for malicious code.

Tests of the effectiveness of the program — which is derived from one used on military networks — were to have begun in February but have been delayed by debates within the Obama administration. Both the military origin of the system and the involvement of the NSA have aroused concerns about privacy.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

President Obama promised in May that there would be no intrusion on private communications, and the administration has indicated its intention to consult with privacy and civil liberaties groups on an ongoing basis.

Ari Schwartz, a vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told the Associated Press, “There are a number of concerns that come with this process, the main one being how do you go about protecting the system in a way that insures you’re not monitoring private systems. I don’t have a full answer to that question. But the president made that pledge.”

Despite these assurances, it is not clear whether non-governmental data can be kept out of the monitoring system, and the plan has critics even within DHS. Former assistant secretary of homeland security Stewart A. Baker told the Washington Post, “The bitter battles over privacy and NSA’s role in domestic wiretapping hang over cybersecurity like a toxic cloud.”

Baker, who served as NSA general counsel during the Clinton administration, also suggested that the Bush administration should be held responsible for creating many of the current problems by trying to keep so much of Einstein 3 secret.

“The solution was veiled in secrecy in a way that allowed people outside to be suspicious,” he explained, “so anybody who mistrusted the intelligence community could just assume that it was because they were doing something that they shouldn’t be doing.”

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10 Responses to “NSA to monitor private networks for cyberattacks”

used to be proud brit Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:05 am
LOL as if this isn’t being done anyway
they are just going to get the power to use it,
I think somebody`s been checking me out on myspace since i`ve been on here
because the first time i came on this site i put my myspace in the box provided .
since been contacted
from a woman in TEXAS?
Bit strange i think!
k. Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:06 am
This article assumes that the NSA has not been able to and is not monitoring any private computer and internet use.

You must be joking.

The internet/DAARPA net is the back bone of the internet. The NSA has been able to see whatever they like whenever they like since additional lines were laid down over the early internet network.

Sites like prison planet, patriot sites or those voicing any type of anti-government dissent are constantly monitored, records kept and lists made. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the release of the PC in every home and the internet did not have some strategic uses in the early nineties into the present as the NWO marches closer to the endgame.

The tool you claim that is so useful in waking you up and getting the message across is the same tool that is used to tighten the noose around your neck everytime you find something that supposedly educates you and wakes you up.

So simple it is. The bigger the patriot site and the more traffic, the more its monitored. So who are the big fish in the truth movement, conspiracy genre and alternative media?
There is where the populace is herded and kept track of diligently.

Same thing with Ron Paul supporters. All contributors, supporters and voters were put into the database and flagged. Which is why you had the recent articles about how Paul supporters were on government lists as domestic terrorists. And you don’t think regular viewers and subscribers to certain websites isn’t jacking up your position on the hot list?

Now…make yourself immune to all evils and go get yourself some Alex Jones ringtones.

Wake up people!

used to be proud brit Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:04 am
I HAVEN’T HEARD OF ALEX`S RINGTONES ,SHOULD BE GOOD LOL
I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR SOME IF THERE IS A LINK PLS POST
IT`S A GOOD BUSINESS IDEA
I ALSO AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID
ONLY A FOOL WOULD THINK OTHERWISE
SAME WITH THE PHONES ,ALL TRACKED AND ELECTRONIC/ MONITORED
OTHERWISE WE WOULD`NT HAVE THEM

molotovmouse Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
The ringtones kinda suck in my opinion.

9/11wuzthegov Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I don’t care what they say, or what they see, they can monitor deeeeeez nutz!
Beel Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 am
I’ve said it for years – NO FREEDOM IN SECURITY, NO SECURITY IN FREEDOM!

I was telling my wife, these days, with so much technology and information in entertainment, computers, TV, and the like, THEY could tell us exactly what THEY’RE going to do and WE would chalk it up to ‘just a movie, or tv show’.

Scary stuff…
STARMAN Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
NOT ANOTHER EXCUSE TO SPY ON AMERICANS

GOOD JOB NSA YOU MAKE STALIN LOOK GOOD
gravel kucinich paul nader Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Homeland Gestapo Legal Creep in the Police State.

Oil
Spy
9/11
Theft
Dance
AIPAC
Profits
Goyim
Opium
Mossad
Anthrax
The FED
Bankers
Neocons
Pipelines
Lobbyists
Propaganda
9/11wuzthegov Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
9/11=inside job. Government is real bad. Wants to hurt you. Wants to kill you. They like pain.
LESTER Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm
IS THERE ANY THING THAT CAN BE DONE BESIDES moving TO ANOTHER COUNTRY next the gov will be in your bed room telling husband and wife’s what they can and can not do what the clergy can and can not preach in the pulpit under gov health care which doctor you can and can not go to how much the gov can spend on each individual [hear people gripe about their blue cross and blue shield] all in all how much more are the free American citizens are supposed to take before they are not free any more any body got any ideas