[ISN] Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/us/politics/13cyber.html

By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER
The New York Times
June 12, 2009

WASHINGTON - A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising 
significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration 
moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to 
prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer 
networks.

President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled 
last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil 
liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. 
Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, 
particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on 
security systems in the United States that have set off a race to 
develop better cyberweapons.

Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by 
the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic 
end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, 
attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has 
already generated intense controversy.

There is simply no way, the officials say, to effectively conduct 
computer operations without entering networks inside the United States, 
where the military is prohibited from operating, or traveling electronic 
paths through countries that are not themselves American targets.

[...]


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