U.S. Declassifies Part of Secret Cybersecurity Plan: Via Threat Level.

The Obama administration declassified part of the government’s cybersecurity plan Tuesday, publishing parts of it that discuss intrusion detection systems for federal computer networks and the government’s role in securing critical infrastructure.

The declassification announcement was made by Howard A. Schmidt, a former Microsoft security executive who in December was appointed cybersecurity coordinator by President Barack Obama. Schmidt was speaking at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, an annual industry conference for computer security professionals.

The government’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative was launched in 2008 by President George W. Bush under a shroud of secrecy. The plan has 12 directives that cover the government’s strategy to protect U.S. networks — including military, civilian,  government networks and critical infrastructure systems — as well as the government’s offensive strategy to combat cyber warfare.

Civil libertarians criticized the Bush administration for failing to disclose the contents of the plan or allowing independent oversight of its implementation. Schmidt said that Obama recognized the need for some transparency. [ Read more ... ]

Italian Court Finds Google Violated Privacy: Via NYT > Privacy.

Google said the case, involving a video of bullying, could undermine freedom of expression on the Internet.

MILAN — Three Google executives were convicted Wednesday of violating Italian privacy laws in a ruling that the company denounced as an “astonishing” attack on freedom of expression on the Internet.

The case involves online videos showing an autistic boy being bullied by classmates in Turin, which were posted in 2006 on Google Video, an online video-sharing service that Google ran before its acquisition of YouTube.

Prosecutors charged that the videos violated Italian personal privacy protections. They said the clips were removed only after complaints from Vivi Down, an Italian organization representing people with Down syndrome, whose name was mentioned in the videos.

“We are definitely satisfied that someone has to take responsibility for this violation of privacy,” said Guido Camera, a lawyer for Vivi Down. [ Read more ... ]

The creepy mindset behind Cass Sunstein's creepy proposal: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

(updated below - Update II)

Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama's closest confidants.  Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs."  In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and psuedo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems "false conspiracy theories" about the Government.  This would be designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists.  The paper's abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here.  [ Read more ... ]

Obama Appoints Former Microsoft Security Chief New Cyber Security Czar: Via Threat Level.

It took seven months but President Obama has finally found someone to take the cybersecurity czar job no one wanted.

Howard Schmidt,  a former Microsoft security executive and a one-time cybersecurity adviser to President George W. Bush, has been appointed to the position of cybersecurity coordinator, according to a White House announcement on Tuesday.

Schmidt served as vice chair, and then chair, of the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security for the White House from December 2001 until May 2003, when he reportedly left the position out of frustration that the government wasn’t making cybersecurity a priority. After leaving the White House, he became chief information security officer at eBay. [ Read more ... ]

Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned: Via Threat Level.

The Obama administration is seeking to reverse a federal appeals court decision that dramatically narrows the government’s search-and-seizure powers in the digital age.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Justice Department officials are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its August ruling that federal prosecutors went too far when seizing 104 professional baseball players’ drug results when they had a warrant for just 10.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-2 decision offered Miranda-style guidelines to prosecutors and judges on how to protect Fourth Amendment privacy rights while conducting computer searches.

Kagan, appointed solicitor general by President Barack Obama, joined several U.S. attorneys in telling the San Francisco-based court Monday that the guidelines are complicating federal prosecutions in the West. [ Read more ... ]

Company Connected to GOP and Romney Delivers Diebold Machines to Maryland Polls - Via Threat Level:

A company, whose head is the former chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and is on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign steering committee, has won a contract from Diebold to deliver its voting machines on Election Day to precincts in 14 Maryland voting districts. I filed this story on the deal for Wired's front door.

The trucking firm, Office Movers, is owned by the family-run Kane Company, whose CEO and president is John M. Kane, chairman of the Republican Party in Maryland from 2002 until December 2006 and pictured at right with President Bush. Last November, Kane joined the steering committee for Republican presidential nominee candidate Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's primary in Michigan. [ Read more ... ]

Safe From Unlawful Searches and Seizures? - Via ACLU Blog - U.S. Supreme Court:

Today the U.S. Supreme Court heard Virginia v. Moore, a Fourth Amendment case that's been wending through the judicial system for nearly five years.

The petitioner, David Lee Moore, happened to be driving by police officers Anthony and McAndrew on February 20, 2003, in Portsmouth, Va., at just about the moment that Detective B.J. Karpowski was alerting them to keep an eye out for an ex-con nicknamed "Chubs," who was believed to be driving with a suspended license.

The "Chubs" Karpowski was referring to was Christopher Delbridge, a man just released from a federal prison whose driving privileges the detective knew were suspended. But, as Moore's luck would have it, he shared with Delbridge this unfortunate nickname. In fact, "Chubs" is the name that officer Anthony knew Moore by. Moore also happened to be driving on a suspended license.

And so it came to pass that cops looking for Delbridge that day, found Moore. [ Read more ... ]

Secret Spying Showdown Hits Federal Appeals Court Wednesday :

On Wednesday, secret documents that purportedly chronicle parts of the governments' secret warrantless spying on Americans' communications will collide with the government's most powerful legal tool -- the state secrets privilege -- whose invocation virtually forces judges to disappear lawsuits into the memory hole once the government says a lawsuit involves national security.

At stake in the battle in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court is whether the U.S. court system has the power to review the government's wiretapping of Americans if that surveillance is conducted in the name of the so-called 'War on Terror.'' 'The government is asking the court to dismiss two lawsuits aimed at shutting down warrantless surveillance and data-mining of Americans' calls and emails, despite the two cases having evidence that seems to back up the claims of illegal surveillance. Bush Administration lawyers say the courts have no business second-guessing the President when it comes to national security. [ Read more ... ]

Story Time in the Senate - New York Times: "In his Senate testimony yesterday, Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, tried to be a 'loyal Bushie,' a term Mr. Sampson used in his infamous e-mail message to describe what he was looking for in United States attorneys. But if Mr. Sampson was trying to fall on his sword, he had horrible aim. In testimony that got so embarrassing for the White House that the Republicans tried to cut it off, Mr. Sampson simply ended up making it clearer than ever that the eight prosecutors were fired for political reasons.

He provided more evidence, also, that the attorney general and other top Justice Department officials were dishonest in their initial statements about the firings. [ Read more ... ]