Preventing cyberattacks means going after threats, experts say

Federal efforts to block cyberterrorism need more teeth and should focus more on going after threats instead of concentrating on protecting vulnerabilities, according to several top cyber experts speaking at a recent panel sponsored by the American Bar Association.

The cybersecurity panel on June 21 was part of the ABA Homeland Security Law Instutute conference. The speakers were high-level current and former government cyber experts. Here are some of their comments. Continue reading →

Buried in immigration bill: language that would put US on path to a national ID card

WASHINGTON – A recent column published on CNN.com raises the possibility of a major privacy infringement buried in the many pages of the Senate bipartisan immigration reform bill: Requirements that digitized passport or driver’s license photos be on file with Citizenship and Immigration Services for anyone wanting to work, including U.S. citizens, and be matched against a government-issued photo ID card, using a government-mandated facial recognition device.

Immigrant workers would likely have to get biometric worker identification cards.

Continue reading →

J-schools experiment with drones as news tools, but worry about privacy

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, for commercial and law enforcement use in the United States is under increased scrutiny as the Federal Aviation Administration moves forward on implementing laws to regulate the technology. But the value of the small, relatively inexpensive surveillance technology has not escaped the notice of another group of potential users – journalists.

At least three journalism schools – at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Syracuse University and the University of Missouri – are experimenting with small drones to determine their usefulness and practicality in newsgathering and storytelling. In addition, a few news organizations have also put some drones in the air, as did the Occupy protesters to monitor police action. Continue reading →

When it comes to cyber law, serious issues remain unresolved, former DHS official says

The potential for cyber attack in the United States is understated and the increasing vulnerability is shared not only by the private sector but also by the military and other government operations. While the Obama administration has treated the cyber … Continue reading →

Media stuck to news — not politics — in bin Laden coverage, Pew analysis finds

At the end of long week of news coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden, a review of the U.S. media by the Project for Excellence in Journalism offers encouraging news: The mainstream news media stayed focused on the news, not moving to political ramifications or analysis, and continued to deepen and broaden its reporting throughout the week, offering readers and viewers new details and international reaction.

“One quarter (25%) of the mainstream media coverage monitored from May 1 through May 4 involved reconstructing the commando mission at bin Laden’s secret hiding place” the report said. “…The second-biggest storyline in the mainstream press was also one that involved reporting more than analysis. It detailed reactions to bin Laden’s death from around the world and around the country, and accounted for 24% of the bin Laden coverage monitored. “ Continue reading →

Military propaganda program based on fake online personas

We’ve all heard of the folks who create new versions of themselves to appear more attractive or appealing on social media sites – but now the U.S. government is getting into the act.

But what may seem just sleazy when it’s a private citizen turns a little scary when it’s the government using fake identifies to spread misleading information on the Internet.

The Guardian newspaper reports that the military’s Central Command, headed by Gen. James Mattis, has contracted with a California firm to create an “online persona management service.” The contract is intended to help the military “secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence Internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.”

The program is aimed at disrupting terrorists and extremists and the personas will communicate only in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto – not English, a Centcom spokesman said. Continue reading →

Police leaders call for immigration reform, but is anyone listening?

A group of top local police officials wants Congress and President Barack Obama to pass a comprehensive immgration reform law.Research conducted for police officials from the largest city, county and state law enforcement agencies around the country shows that local police chiefs have increasingly become drawn into the controversy over how to enforce federal immigration laws.

The new report (right) by the Police Executive Research Forum was the result of case studies in six locations: Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz.; Prince William County, Va.; New Haven, Conn.; Minneapolis; and Montgomery County, Md.

Previous research by PERF found many local police chiefs feel frustrated with the way immigration policies and laws are affecting local law enforcement.

In fact, the police officials gathered to review the recent report and issued recommendations to the Obama administration and Congress, chief among them that immigration reform needs to happen now and a strong consensus that because immigration laws are federal laws. Continue reading →

How journalists should handle the aftermath of attacks

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan is recovering from injuries sustained in a vicious attack by a mob while she was reporting in Cairo last Friday (Feb. 11, 2011), according to a the network.

The Washington Post reported that CBS said Logan is in a U.S. hospital, but a source said she has returned to her home.

Logan “suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating,” CBS said.

Victims of sexual assault trying to recover need to address their mental health as well as physical health, experts say.

Elana Newman, a psychology professor at the University of Tulsa and research director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, said . . . Continue reading →

Wikileaks prosecutors go after Twitter information

Information about the government’s WikiLeaks investigation, which has been mainly under the radar, surfaced this week in a federal courtroom in Virginia, where prosecutors argued for the right to force Twitter to provide detailed account information on users who are linked to the probe.

The Washington Post reported that “Tuesday’s arguments went to the heart of a larger debate about WikiLeaks – whether the posting of the documents was free speech or a violation of national security. They also provided a high-profile test of outdated rules about what data the government can seize in the new world of social networking.”

An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing one of the Twitter clients argued that releasing the information would violate the First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourth Amendment protection against unwarranted searches.

The judge, who originally ordered Twitter to provide the information, has taken the case under consideration. Continue reading →

New subcommittee name leaves out civil rights, liberties

The former Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee now has a more streamlined title — the Constitution Committee. The former chairman of the subcommittee, Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, isn’t pleased.

“Once again, the new Republican majority has shown that it isn’t quite as committed to the Constitution as its recent lofty rhetoric would indicate,” Nadler said in a statement. “Today (Jan. 7, 2011) it has yet again shown its contempt for key portions of the document – the areas of civil rights and civil liberties — by banishing those words for the title of the Constitution Subcommittee. Continue reading →