http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/20_16/cover-stories/26748-3.html By ALICE LIPOWICZ 08/15/05 One to watch: Baker's role will impact cyber efforts IT executives anticipate that the Homeland Security Department's new cybersecurity czar position and its responsibilities may be shaped by another newcomer to the department with an even higher profile in the IT world: Stewart Baker, DHS' newly named assistant secretary for policy. Baker is one of Washington's most influential technology lawyers, and has been at odds with civil libertarians in the past. He was chief counsel to the 9/11 Commission and general counsel to the National Security Agency under the Bush and Clinton administrations. Baker was nominated for the new DHS position July 14, but the Senate has not confirmed him. A lawyer at Steptoe and Johnson LLP in Washington, Baker has been prominent in major IT privacy and data security debates over the last 15 years, including his advocacy on behalf of the NSA in the early 1990s of the Clipper Chip. It is based on the Skipjack algorithm and an encryption standard with a "back door," allowing spy agencies to access encrypted voice, fax and computer records for national security purposes. His appointment sends a positive message about the importance of IT and technology at DHS, said Dan Burton, vice president of government affairs at Entrust Inc. "Stewart Baker knows cybersecurity, the IT industry and government," Burton said. "To bring in someone of his stature sends a strong signal." "You would assume Stewart Baker would play a role, and it's natural that he would have some influence" on the cybersecurity post, said Patrick Burke, senior vice president and director of command, control, communications and intelligence for SRA International Corp. of Fairfax, Va. Baker declined a request to comment for this story. However, he has espoused some detailed views on IT for homeland security in the past. In his testimony to the 9/11 Commission in December 2003, Baker said he wants investigators to be able to search, within 30 seconds, a terrorism suspect's address, phone, e-mail, financial, travel and organization records. The government also needs to have access to private-sector data about a specific attack site within four hours after that site is threatened, and to be able to locate critical infrastructure nodes in the vicinity of an attack within five minutes, Baker said. To protect against abuses, DHS should make use of IT for electronic auditing and rules-based access control, as well as anonymization and one-way hashing, which allow data searching between private and public databases while also controlling access to protect privacy, Baker wrote in his testimony. But Mark Rothenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, said he is worried about Baker's views on privacy because he has crossed swords with him many times on issues such as the Patriot Act and wiretapping. "It's disturbing that DHS, which will now have broad authority within the United States, selects someone who spends a great deal of time looking at means to expand electronic surveillance," Rothenberg said. _________________________________________ Attend ToorCon Sept 16-18th, 2005 Convention Center San Diego, California www.toorcon.org
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