By Trey Herr

“Governments writing viruses...today, we sort of take that for granted. But ten years ago, that would have been science fiction.”

In the last half-decade, governments have become some of the most sophisticated proliferators of malicious software. What has changed isn’t the behavior of states so much as the scope of our understanding of their activities. Recognizing this and adapting to it requires a shift in mindset, namely: it isn’t all malware anymore.

By Katelyn Anders

On November 12, 2014, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) held a public meeting with four panel discussions.  The invited panelists and board members covered the topic of “defining privacy.”  In the wake of the Snowden leaks, department store data breaches, and changes in cell phone data tracking practices, this event brought together a vast group of professionals from different fields.  The topics of privacy and technology easily melded together, but one question became very apparent that highlights the complexity of their tandem relationship:  how does technology affect our view and conceptualization of privacy? 

By Thomas Wester

Cybersecurity represents a major paradigm shift in global conflict and warfare. In his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn developed the notion that paradigm shifts in technology transform global dynamics.[i] Cyber-attacks are becoming more common; paired with increasing sophistication and greater lethality, cyber warfare will influence and dominate the war-fighting style of the 21st Century and beyond. In a 2012 article, President Obama warned that the “cyber threat to our nation is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face.”[ii] Mounting appropriate responses to this emerging threat will be crucial to ensuring our security as a nation. However, the response must be morally permissible and the currently accepted moral theories, including the Just War Theory, fail to fully address this emerging form of warfare. Furthermore, our nation’s responses will likely set the global precedent for responses to cyber-attacks. Thus, the morality of responses in cyber warfare is an issue that must be addressed.

By Jonathan Berliner

  If anything is taken for granted, it is the Internet. The nation with the smallest GDP in 2013, Tuvalu, has its own top-level domain name. China, the world’s largest nation by population, has its own sophisticated mechanisms for controlling the Internet. According to a McKinsey report from 2011, $8 Trillion is processed in e-commerce annually via the Internet and of 13 nations accounting for 70% of world GDP, 3.4% of their overall GDP is solely from the Internet. Yet, these staggering numbers account for a system that is not governed by a government authority, a UN agency, or any single stakeholder for that matter.

By Jonathan Berliner

  This event, hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, seemed to suggest a new, unbiased perspective on the Snowden leaks thus far. Whereas the normal Snowden-related polarized rhetoric focuses on the merits of surveillance, privacy, or government transparency, this panel discussion promised to take a more objective route: ceteris paribus, what is the damage that the NSA surveillance programs have cost the United States in terms of commerce, confidence, and credibility? Had I been consulted, I would suggest that the hosts substitute “damage” with “cost,” to sound more even-handed; one does not assess the damage to his or her wallet after a shopping trip to Safeway, but one does assess the damage to his or her bank account after their wallet has been robbed.

By: Jonathan Berliner

            This year’s Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference (#CFP2014) was held during an extraordinary time in the history of computers, freedom, and privacy. The Edward Snowden NSA revelations of 2013 made the task of privacy experts more pressing and certainly added to the energy of this year’s conference. Attendees included a former governor of Pennsylvania, a congressman, a former general counsel of the NSA, leaders of NGOs, cryptographers, whistleblowers, and drone experts from as far as Australia. Of course, the usual cadre of DC-area policy wonks and lawyers were in attendance as well.