Further Reading “‘A kiss of death’: Top GOP tech critics are personae non gratae after election challenge” By Cristiano Lima — Politico. I take these articles with a block of salt, not least of which because many inside the Beltway articles lack perspective and a sense of history. For sure, in the short term the … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (8 February 2021)
It’s not clear who will end up where, but new Senate chairs will change focus and agenda of committees and debate over the next two years. With the victories of Senators-elect Rafael Warnock (D-GA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA), control of the United States Senate will tip to the Democrats once Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D) … Continue reading Preview of Senate Democratic Chairs
The top U.S. intelligence official admits the PATRIOT Act has been used to surveil a website and its visitors. This admission could result in a narrowing of FISA to stop this and related practices. In a follow-on letter to correct his previous letter the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) acknowledged the Federal Bureau of Investigation … Continue reading IC Concedes PATRIOT Act Used To Collect Browsing
The focus was on how the U.S. and EU can reach agreement on an arrangement that will not be struck down by the EU’s highest court. Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing on the now invalidated European Union (EU)-United States (U.S.) Privacy Shield, a mechanism that allowed companies to … Continue reading Privacy Shield Hearing
Further Reading “ICE, IRS Explored Using Hacking Tools, New Documents Show” By Joseph Cox — Vice. Federal agencies other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Intelligence Community (IC) appear to be interesting in utilizing some of the capabilities offered by the private sector to access devices or networks in the name of … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (11 November)
The agency that oversees the data protection of EU agencies has laid out its view on how they should comply with the GDPR after the EU-US Privacy Shield. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has published a strategy detailing how European Union (EU) agencies and bodies should comply with the Court of Justice of the … Continue reading Schrems II Guidance
In the latest demand, the usual suspects are joined by two new nations in urging tech to stop using default encryption and to essentially build backdoors. The Five Eyes (FVEY) intelligence alliance plus two Asian nations have released an “International Statement: End-To-End Encryption and Public Safety,” which represents the latest FVEY salvo in their campaign … Continue reading Five Eyes Again Lean On Tech About Encryption
The EU’s highest court rules against three nations that tried to require that communications providers hand over location data and traffic data in bulk. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down a pair of rulings (here and here) on the extent to which European Union (EU) nations may engage in bulk, … Continue reading CJEU Puts Limits On Electronic Communications Surveillance
The U.S. tries to lay out the reasons why data can still be transferred from the EU The Trump Administration has released a crib sheet they are hoping United States (U.S.) multinationals will have success in using to argue to data protection authorities (DPA) in the European Union that their Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) and … Continue reading Commerce White Paper on Schrems II
Coming Events The United States’ Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced that its third annual National Cybersecurity Summit “will be held virtually as a series of webinars every Wednesday for four weeks beginning September 16 and ending October 7:”September 16: Key Cyber InsightsSeptember 23: Leading the Digital TransformationSeptember 30: … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (18 September)
Michael Kans 