Sorry, no Tech Tuesday today – instead a brief post about need for more dramatic NSA reform than what has been proposed so far. It is already 4:30pm but I still suggest that you call your representative or senator in Washington, DC. Here are what I believe to be important demands. First, to put the NSA under civilian leadership subject to Senate confirmation (instead of military). Second, to break up the NSA into multiple agencies, one focused on actually protecting networks (one of the NSA’s...

One of the many things I love about homeschooling is the ability to use current affairs to motivate the study of history and civics and more. And it is hard to imagine a richer quarry than NSA surveillance and spying. It has everything! Civil rights. Government balance of power. International relations. Computer security. Data analysis. History of spying. And so much more. We took the kids to see the Fifth Estate and have We Steal Secrets and Mediastan on the to watch list. Our son is in a de...

This is a short follow up to my Friday post which argued for protest over more crypto and received a lot of critical comments. Based on these here are my replies to the key questions / objections: 1. The most common comment was – why not do both? Why not more crypto and protest? In fact won’t we need to crypto to protest? Doing both suggests that doubling down on crypto is a viable strategy. It is not – the more we invest in this now the more we expend resources on an unwinnable arms race (if...

I am a big fan of what Bruce Schneier has written over the years including a recent piece on our Newfound Fear of Risk. But I disagree fundamentally with him on the implications of the latest disclosures around the NSA’s extensive work to weaken, break or circumvent cryptography. Schneier essentially encourages people to try to outrun the NSA in a piece titled How to remain secure against NSA surveillance that ends as follows:Trust the math. Encryption is your friend. Use it well, and do your...

The Wall Street Journal had an opinion piece earlier this week with the tantalizing title “Metadata Liberation Movement” that reflects some of my thinking on network analysis. The column asks an important question: “With respect to the […] metadata surveillance, why is it conducted by a secret agency at all?” If this kind of analysis works then we should use it for a lot more than fighting terrorism. Possible use cases include fighting crime more generally, human trafficking and organized cri...

I have so many thoughts buzzing around my head about surveillance and what is happening with the NSA and Edward Snowden that it’s hard to know where to start. So I have attempted to condense things down into the most important points as I see them: First, let me unequivocally state that I am personally grateful to Snowden for exposing the extent of surveillance itself and maybe even more importantly the ridiculousness that is the legal framework within which it is conducted. Second, Snowden’s...

By now it is no longer a secret that the NSA has been conducting a massive data gathering effort on US citizens. Let me say right up front: doing this in secret and reviewed only in closed door hearings and subject only to a secret court is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. The potential for abuse, especially when combined with other excessive powers given to government by the Patriot Act, is simply unacceptable. On the other side I completely see why having this data could in fact b...