[108212] in Cypherpunks
Re: CLINTON PROPOSES $1.4 BILLION FOR COMPUTER SECURITY
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Information Security)
Tue Feb 9 00:23:15 1999
From: Information Security <guy@panix.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 00:10:04 -0500 (EST)
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Information Security <guy@panix.com>
> From owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net Sun Feb 7 20:10:49 1999
>
> CLINTON PROPOSES $1.4 BILLION FOR COMPUTER SECURITY
> As part of its call for new spending on advanced technology R&D, the
> Clinton
> administration is proposing that $1.464 billion be spent on "critical
> infrastructure protection and computer security," an increase of 40% over
> what's currently spent in this area. Most of the funding is earmarked for
> applied research on computer security through the Defense Department, but
> about $3 million would go toward new computer science scholarships with the
> goal of creating a "cyber-corps" of electronic network defenders. Congress
> is likely to approve or even increase the proposed funds, according to Rep.
> Curt Weldon (R-Penn.), who chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on
> research. (Science 29 Jan 99)
The Pentagon wants $1.4 billion for computer security?
After getting Congress to pass with no debate and
in the dead of night CALEA legislation which mandates
all communications equipment have as its primary
feature the ability for the government to snoop it?
Just who is watching out for us while the U.S. government
continues to do everything it can to equip itself with
a Big Brother telescreen system (the telescreen in everyone's
home: the telephone), and beyond into our bodies with biometrics?
Not many people in high places.
----
And a "cyber-corps"?
Sounds like the NSA wants to expand its staff of ECHELON analysts.
Of course, they'd never actually admit the NSA (NSA == military)
wants to conduct greatly expanded domestic surveillance.
---guy
I could be wrong.
The Wall Street Journal, 2/5/1999, front page:
LOOSE LIPS worry intelligence officials,
while Cohen sees a need for domestic spying.
--------------------------------------------
Lt. Gen. Patrick Hughes, the military's top
intelligence officer, complains about press
leaks compromising military operations. CIA
Director Tenet blames the leakers inside
government: "People have just lost their
sense of discipline." The Air Force for the
first time court martials one of its own on
charges of computer hacking.
Defense chief Cohen warns that the government
needs to conduct more surveillance within the
U.S. That, he predicts, "is going to put us
on a collision course with the rights of
privacy." Such actions, others suggest, reflect
a change in the post-Cold War world and the
growth of terrorism threats.
The line between foreign and domestic threats
"is getting really hazy," warns William Banks,
a Syracuse University expert in national-security
law.
