FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

[news] america attacked - technology implications

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 13:01:56 +0200 From: Maurice Wessling <maurice@bof.nl> Subject: [news] america attacked - technology implications To: gilc-plan@gilc.org Send reply to: gilc-plan@gilc.org

I hope all of the GILC members in NYC are safe and healthy. This is devastating news.

Maurice Wessling

12/Sep/01 USA: AMERICA ATTACKED - TECHNOLOGY IMPLICATIONS - TECHNOLOGY TOOLS - OFFICIALS CALL FOR MORE NET SECURITY - ...

By CHARLES PILLER KAREN KAPLAN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS. AMERICA ATTACKED - TECHNOLOGY IMPLICATIONS - TECHNOLOGY TOOLS - Officials Call for More Net Security - But technical experts say new surveillance efforts would not deter terrorism because of the high level of encryption.

LEAD: Politicians and policymakers on Tuesday called for the broader use of technology to flag terrorism attacks. But technical experts said increased monitoring of Internet messages and data would do little to deter terrorist attacks because sophisticated encryption technology already makes their messages unreadable. "The idea that we can magically install technology to prevent [terrorism] is the wrong way to think," said Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security in San Jose, and a noted cryptographer. "You can't eavesdrop on everybody-it doesn't work, you don't have the resources." But in Washington, the former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence expressed strong support Tuesday for modernizing the National Security Agency, the federal agency that conducts most of the nation's electronic spying.

"We've got to modernize the NSA," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "The NSA used to be on the cutting edge of technology. A lot of people think they've fallen way behind." Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), chairman of the House Select Committee on National Security, said he would not support draconian new surveillance efforts. "Frisking everyone on the planet to find the one person with the weapon is a high-cost, low-yield way to go. That's a fair analogy to searching through everyone's e-mail," Cox said. "Not only do such schemes threaten civil liberties, they are such scattershot approaches that they're bound to fail.... The notion that we can reorganize every aspect of civil society to protect against terrorism is fool's gold." Rep. Bob Stump (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, urged more emphasis on developing spy networks. "We can listen to anybody around the world talking on the phone that we want to. [But] we can't penetrate these groups," he said. "We've said for a long time that we've been short on human intelligence." Civil libertarians found such sentiments reassuring, but predicted there would be pressure to implement more Big Brother-style technological responses. This could include calls for new restrictions on software encryption, and the increased use of biometric monitors in public places. Biometrics precisely measure physical characteristics-such as facial contours or eye color-as a means of positively identifying individuals. But the mass use of such methods has proved unreliable, according to experts. At the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa last January, about 100,000 fans were scanned by secret cameras to snare criminals in the crowd. "To these systems ... one out of every 50 people looks like [the infamous terrorist] Carlos the Jackal," Jim Wayman, a biometrics expert at San Jose State University, said at the time. "And the real Carlos has only a 50% chance of looking like himself." Wholesale biometric screening also has been criticized as a threat to personal privacy. "When you have a national catastrophe, there's a very quick and swift reaction to try and give lots of security at the expense of civil liberties," said Shari Steele, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "There has always been a tension between security and freedoms." EDITION: Home Edition SECTION: Business (c) The Times Mirror Company 2001. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ----- LOS ANGELES TIMES 12/09/2001 P3

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