Friday Sync-Up: NSA on US Networks?

Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, ...

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Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, and pirates to discuss in an open thread. Here is this week’s conversation starter:

National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone told lawmakers this week that foreign hackers are exploiting his agency’s “blind spot” – domestic Internet activity. 

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  1. masterredfox

    Who's to say that the NSA is not already doing that and doesn't want it known. With everyone listening to everything, my only questions is who is watching the watchers?

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  2. Preston

    Yes, with reasonable cause for a specific purpose within a limited time (preferably with a warrant issued by a non-FISA court judge). For general surveillance, monitoring, and data collection, no.

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  3. Cole

    I don’t trust any of our “security” agencies to not violate an American’s rights.

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  4. Logos

    Yes. While I dislike giving government more potential reach into my life, the speed, growth, and access of our civilian networks has overrun our legal system to control users and secure data Network providers, like the media, have proven incapable or unwilling to self-discipline.

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  5. Tim Costello

    No. Five years ago I would have leaned to yes, but until I see some FBI agents going to jail and doing serious time for abusing the FISA court process in 2016 and 2017, I can't buy it. The FISA court showed itself to be corrupt and manipulatable. To change this to yes, the punishment for abuse of citizen rights must be extremely severe to dissuade those who are willing to take a chance on criminal behavior in exchange for at worst a slap on the wrist and a big payday.

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  6. Donald David Courtney

    So, you are saying that anyone, friend or foe, can put up and take down an active internet communication before any entity (except the ISP) is aware of it.

    On the face of it, this seems to be a function of a free an open society.

    Of course, no Citizen wants their freedom to communicate abridged; yet there is ample evidence everywhere of just such abridgment: banks, credit cards, nearly all communications require passwords, medical records, governmental access, and on and on...mostly for the user’s protection.

    So, how would we protect the USA from invasion without abridging our freedoms in an onerous way?

    Could ISP requests be supervised?

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  7. Stevek

    Not sure. I agree that the devil is in the fine print. The problem is still there, but the founding fathers thought that education was the answer to human nature problems; still, the flip side is information overload. An ongoing awareness of the problem is one aspect of getting to a solution, but this will take real commitment from companies|individuals doing business on the internet, like time, money, etc, & not just a view for short-term profits|benefits. One way the government could help may be to provide opt-in resources (again a double-edged sword, like built-in back doors, etc), but this is too easily politicized & then weaponized.
    Most (3rd parties) internet protection companies will monitor internet traffic, but again, it is the age old problem of needing watchers to watch the watchers, etc, so diversity seems to also be a part of the answer ... may be even a mix of old & new technologies. This tendency to hand off the problem to someone else to deal with may be at the core of the issue — IF something is to remain FREE, then there has to be a "team effort" on all parts|shares to get to a solution, which is an ever growing challenge to individuals|small-businesses. The rise of guilds, unions, private clubs, etc, has demonstrated the need to restrict access to resources, and government also cannot solve all of our problems without becoming a police state, which takes out the FREEDOM in the equation.
    The problem may always be with us. "People often start things without thinking through beforehand how or where they can stop them; once we commit ourselves to a questionable course, the problem of where to stop is constantly with us."

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  8. John

    The NSA already monitors our internet traffic and phone calls illegally. Social media does as well but legally, when we agree to their rules of use that users never read.

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      Klon Kitchen

      No. No it does not.

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  9. Kurt Wesolek

    Resoundingly yes. The real question is what are or should be the rule differences and structures between domestic and international surveillance? To the extent they are addressing cyber warfare/attacks the internet is fairly boundless. Making distinctions between these jurisdictions virtually impossible. I presume that Nakasone is referencing when intrusions are traced to a domestic origination vs transiting domestic servers or equipment. Clearly they have the ability to discover and impede electronically any attack regardless of the location of the originating source. So presumably he is seeking the ability to physically interdict espionage agents acting on US soil using cyber tools. Not sure how this is a blind spot. I think it would be appropriate to have a set up comparable to the Fisa-court where cyber documentation can be presented and addressed on an expedited basis.

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  10. Anonymous

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      Klon Kitchen

      Of course. But what footprint are you willing to give China, Russia, etc?

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      1. Cole

        It’s unfortunate that our intelligence agencies have been caught so many times violating rights and laws. I understand your comment, but why would we trust them? And now the military is calling out citizens by name. They need to be focusing on Russia and China.

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