We can’t hand oversight of the Internet over to Russia. Much like how the US Navy secure’s the world’s waterways, so too do we secure the free flow of information on the global Internet.
So the DOTCOM Act by Senators Rubio, Thune, and others seeks to constrain the President’s ability to cede oversight of ICANN and IANA, fundamental Internet organizations. I hope the House passes it, too.
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Good post by Moe Lane on Edward Snowden and the Glenns Greenwald. Snowden is now outraged that NSA would target foreign (read: Russian) hackers.
Gee, who’s paying his rent again?
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They say that after a fire in the US Embassy in Moscow during the Cold War, the Soviets loaded the whole building with bugs and the whole place was insecure after that. In that spirit, it makes a lot of sense that Google is getting out of Russia. It’s just not safe.
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If we look around the world, we see the enemies of freedom on the march, taking steps to control, to coordinate, to lie, and to destroy.
The problem comes when our own government gets into the act, and starts down the path of what all those other countries are doing.
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We need the NSA. I know the new hotness is following after Rand Paul’s inane blathering, and finding reasons to complain about the NSA. But rather than old and busted, the NSA is actually an important thing to have and to defend.
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Edward Snowden’s Russian asylum is set to expire, but he’s going to try to stay there rather than come back to America, despite his stated willingness to serve his time.
Edward Snowden could show the courage that the women have shown, who quit their jobs with RT to expose Vladimir Putin’s lies for what they are. He has chosen not to. Why is that?
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Last time in Tech at Night I linked to stories about Edward Snowden and Russia in suspicious and/or hostile positions with respect to the Online Privacy crowd that celebrates Snowden.
The hits just keep on coming though, so at this point we have to ask: Just what are Snowden and his paymaster Putin up to?
Over the weekend I did point out that Russia was offering cash to break Tor even as it turns out that Snowden’s recommended privacy tool was insecure.
Well, it’s beginning to be clear that Russia is dead serious about giving a $114,000-equivalent bounty to break open Tor, The Onion Router.
Tor in America is most notable for being used by drug dealers (including the late Silk Road), child pornographers, and other criminal scum. They use Tor and Bitcoin to try to hide their identities. But Tor is also used by people in places like Russia and China to break their laws, some of which include laws against free speech.
However some say Tor is also used by US government interests to furthers its global communications. That’s why Russia wants to break it. People are claiming the reason is that Russia wants to crack down on free speech in Russia, but come on. United Russia is popular. Vladimir Putin and his allies are in no danger of getting voted out of office as long as the fossil fuel revenue keeps coming, and Barack Obama’s ineptitude is ensuring that. Because what are they going to do, vote Communist? Putin offers all the National Greatness the Commies promise, only without the, you know, Communism.
So it’s important to note that NSA may be running out of reasons to get Snowden back. Every leak he and Glenn Greenwald make, the less valuable he is to get back. Every month that passes, the more out of date his data is. Eventually there’s no reason to offer him a deal, and the less likely Snowden is to be able to leave Russia without serving many years of hard time.
So ask your self this: Just what is Edward Snowden up to, to curry favor with the Russians to extend his asylum another year?
Odd, why would China try to steal Iron Dome when the left keeps saying it doesn’t work?
Look, if the Dodgers want to alienate their fans, that’s their business. Keep government out.
For the last couple of years, FTC has been taking aggressive steps to try to punish private sector companies who get broken into. Well, it turns out, there is no mandate for government itself to be secure in its websites! The House only just now passed such a bill! Government is not competent to regulate the Internet or cybersecurity. Period.
We missed Tech on Monday because of Memorial Day, but I was sick anyway so it wasn’t happening. Still getting over my cold though, so this tech is about 2 hours late.
Here’s your periodic reminder that kids and teenagers shouldn’t be online unsupervised. Adult sexual predators are actively hunting them to take advantage of them.
Keeping data Internet-accessible is inherently dangerous to your privacy. Internet security is spotty but still users don’t actually quit services that gather their data, as their outrage is always short lived. People want convenience and innovation so I reject calls for bigger government to try to use FTC to enforce a privacy few actually want.
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So the House ended up passing the (originally anti-NSA, pro-Russian-and-Chinese) “USA Freedom Act”. But fortunately the radicals are mad about it because of the compromises needed to win enough votes to pass it. This is a rare case where I hope the Senate follows its usual pattern and refuses to pass a House bill.
Write it down, though: I agree with Senators Rockefeller, McCain, and Coburn. We need to go after foreign attacks on American companies, and inform the private sector about probable threats. So I support the Deter Cyber Theft Act, as far as I can tell. Naturally China responds to this by playing off of the Edward Snowden propaganda, but we must not be deterred ourselves.
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So even as Democrats try to distract from critical oversight issues by making angry noises about AT&T and DirecTV, Republicans aren’t taking the bait and instead are applying proper oversight to the FCC. Because you see, while the radicals make false anti-“fast lane” arguments for their Title II Reclassification alternative, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Zombie Net Neutrality is still a power grab. It’s a power grab that the Democrat-run press is colluding to allow, buddy-buddy with pro-Net Neutrality corporate lobbyists such as Google’s.
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