The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security appear to be at cross purposes when it comes to the Internet.

 

For the seventh year in a row, homeland security officials are promoting their National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which is designed to educate communities, organizations and individuals on how to safeguard personal information and online communications.

 

Meanwhile, the FBI is pushing Congress to adopt legislation that would require manufacturers of Web-based technologies to modify their products and services to accommodate wiretaps so agents can monitor the communications of criminal or terrorism suspects. Such modifications could make these technologies more vulnerable to attacks from computer hackers, say some civil libertarians.

 

Seth Schoen, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told NextGov: “I think there’s an interesting irony” given the news the FBI is planning “to force technology developers to build backdoors in their security systems. . . . Law enforcement’s desires for backdoors in communications infrastructure could easily come in direct conflict with the government’s desire to strengthen computer security.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

One Agency Wants Internet Wiretaps, Another Wants Privacy Protected (by Aliya Sternstein, NextGov)

National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign (Department of Homeland Security)