Category Archives: NSA

Manipuri political activist Erendro Leichombam has accused the N Biren Singh government led by the BJP of trying to silence dissenting voices in the state by using the provisions of the National Security Act (NSA), 1980.

Leichombam, 40, was released on Monday following a Supreme Court order. He had been detained under the NSA over a Facebbok post in May this year. The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud ordered his release before 5 pm on Monday.

After his release, Leichombam said, It is a sort of redemption. Two months of arbitrary imprisonment, that too, based on a law that was used by the British to put freedom fighters (behind bars) during the colonial era...something that has been used by the current administration in Manipur is very unfortunate.

Hitting out at the BJP-run state government, Leichombam said, Basically, anybody, any one of us can be arrested anytime if whatever we are speaking is against the current administrations liking...this is a concerted attempt to silence the citizens.

What I write on Facebook is an expression of how people are feeling...that's why people are sharing it, liking it...that is a fact the current administration cannot digest. That is why they used this draconian act to put me behind bars, he said terming the police action as an act of political terrorism.

Commenting on the death of Manipur BJP chief S Tikendra Singh due to Covid-19 earlier this year, Leichombam had put out a post on social media stating cow dung and cow urine were not cure for Corona. State BJP leaders had lodged complaint against him terming his post as offensive.

Following his detention, the activists father had moved the Supreme Court. Overruling a governments request to adjourn the hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court said the activists continued detention amounted to violation of right to life and personal liberty.

Leichombam, who along with Irom Sharmila floated the Peoples Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA), a new political outfit in 2016 said, I believe people of Manipur will take this into consideration when Manipur goes to polls next year.

(With Jit Nigomba in Imphal)

Also Read: Legislature not likely to do anything to prevent criminals from entering politics, says SC

Also Read: Shocking state of affairs: Supreme Court raps Kerala govt for allowing relaxations of Covid norms for Bakrid

Continue reading here:
Manipur: Govt using NSA to silence citizens, says activist released after SC order - India Today

National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Monday that Pakistan was currently a target of "hybrid warfare" and an entire network of information warfare was being used against the country.

He made the remarks during a press briefing on the alleged abduction and release of the Afghan ambassador's daughter in Islamabad last week.

Yusuf recalled that the EU DisinfoLab had exposed an India-based network of fake websites and media outlets doing propaganda against Pakistan.

He said fake accounts and bots were being used to create a "narrative" against Pakistan, including regarding the incident involving the Afghan envoy's daughter.

Ambassador Najibullah Alikhils daughter, Silsila, was reportedly abducted on Friday from Islamabads commercial area by unidentified persons who also allegedly subjected her to torture.

According to her, she was returning home in the afternoon in a taxi after visiting a bakery in Islamabads Blue Area when the driver picked up another man who verbally abused and assaulted her. She was later dropped in an unconscious condition by the roadside. Her medical report said she had been physically assaulted.

Sharing slides on data gathered by the government, Yusuf said hashtags were being trended on a daily basis to create false impressions including that Pakistan "is doing something [wrong] in Afghanistan" and that the security situation in Pakistan was poor.

"This is part of an orchestrated campaign of which various fronts have been opened against Pakistan," he said, adding that the same accounts that did "fake propaganda" regarding Balochistan or Kashmir were also doing propaganda ever since the alleged abduction incident took place. According to Yusuf, some of these accounts were operated from inside Pakistan, while the rest were controlled from Afghanistan, India and the West.

As an example, the NSA showed a tweet by a verified Indian Twitter account that contained a false picture of the Afghan envoy's daughter showing her in an injured state.

He said the "spoilers" were trying to create rifts between Pakistan and Afghanistan, adding that this narrative reflected that Pakistan was being made a "scapegoat" in Afghanistan.

"Blaming us for the failures of someone else in Afghanistan will not be acceptable to us," he stressed. He said the government monitored the coordinated activity being carried out through bots and reported the same, but new accounts kept emerging.

Speaking alongside him, Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Qazi Jamilur Rehman said police had analysed all footage of the movement of the Afghan ambassadors daughter. He added that the impression given [about her abduction] is not corroborated by the evidence we have collected.

He revealed that police interviewed more than 200 people in the case after examining the footage obtained through close circuit TV cameras. The woman first leaves from her home on feet, then she hires a taxi from Rana Market and heads to Khadda Market. We subsequently identified the taxi and located its driver and interrogated him, the IGP said.

He continued that Silsila then hired a second cab from Khadda Market that took her to Rawalpindi. Similarly we traced the second taxi and its driver confirmed that he picked up the woman from the market and dropped her off at Saddar, Rawalpindi. We also obtained its footage, he added.

The envoy's daughter then hailed another cab from Rawalpindi to reach Daman-i-Koh. Upon reaching there, she hired a fourth taxi for F-9, but made a brief stopover at F-6, he said.

According to the IGP, the driver of this taxi told police that the woman asked him to stop the car at F-6, and made a phone call to someone, but it could not go through. She then asked to be taken to F-9, the police chief said.

After the cab finally reached F-9, he said, the woman called someone at the embassy and the staffer picked her up from there.

The IGP said Silsila had contended that she did not visit Rawalpindi, but her claim was disputed by the CCTV footage.

Police have sought further assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address a few points in the case, Rehman added.

Here is the original post:
'Pakistan being targeted through hybrid warfare,' NSA Yusuf says in briefing on Afghan 'abduction' incident - DAWN.com

Thus, while on its face, many of the new requirements within the Order are aimed at federal agencies and government subcontractors, the ultimate goal appears to be to create a more unified national cybersecurity defense across all sectors. In this installment of our blog series, I will outline recommended steps for private sector organizations to prepare for compliance with the Order, as well as general best-practice tips for adopting a more preemptive approach to cybersecurity.

First and foremost, organizations must understand their current cybersecurity posture. Given the severity and volume of recent cyberattacks, third-party in-depth or red-team assessments should be done that would include not only the organizations IT assets, but also include solutions providers, vendors, and suppliers. Red teaming is the process of providing a fact-driven adversary perspective as an input to solving or addressing a problem. In the cybersecurity space, it has become a best practice wherein the cyber resilience of an organization is challenged by an adversary or a threat actors perspective.[1] Red-team testing is very useful to test organizational policies, procedures, and reactions against defined, intended standards.

A third-party assessment must include a comprehensive remote network scan and a comprehensive internal scan with internal access provided or gained with the intent to detect and expose potential vulnerabilities, exploits, and attack vectors for red-team testing. Internal comprehensive discovery includes scanning and running tools with the intent to detect deeper levels of vulnerabilities and areas of compromise. Physical intrusion tests during red-team testing should be conducted on the facility, networks, and systems to test readiness, defined policies, and procedures.

The assessment will evaluate the ability to preserve the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information maintained and used by the organization and will test the use of security controls and procedures used to secure sensitive data.

To accurately assess your organizations risk, you first have to know who your vendors, partners, and suppliers are with whom you share critical data. Many organizations rely on a complex and interconnected supply chain to provide solutions or share data. As noted above, this is exactly why the Order will eventually broadly impact the private sector. While on its face, the Order only seems to impact federal government and subcontractor entities, those entities data infrastructures (like most today) are interconnected environments composed of many different organizations with complex layers of outsourcing partners, diverse distribution routes, and various technologies to provide products and services all of whom will have to live up to the Orders cybersecurity standards. In short, the federal government is recognizing that its vendors, partners, and suppliers cybersecurity vulnerabilities are also its own. The sooner all organizations realize this the better.

According to recent NIST guidance, Managing cyber supply chain risk requires ensuring the integrity, security, quality, and resilience of the supply chain and its products and services. NIST recommends focusing on foundational practices, enterprise-wide practices, risk management processes, and critical systems. Cost-effective supply chain risk mitigation requires organizations to identify systems and components that are most vulnerable and will cause the largest organizational impact if compromised.[2]

In the recent attacks, hackers inserted malicious code into Orion software, and around 18,000 SolarWinds customers, including government and corporate entities, installed the tainted update onto their systems. The compromised update has had a sweeping impact, the scale of which keeps growing as new information emerges.

Locking down your networks, systems, and data is just the beginning! Inquiring how your supply chain implements a Zero Trust strategy and secures their environment as well as your shared data is vitally important. A cyber-weak or compromised company can lead to exfiltration of data, which a bad actor can exploit or use to compromise your organization.

Third-party assessors should deliver a comprehensive report of their findings that includes the descriptions of the vulnerabilities, risks found in the environment, and recommendations to properly secure the data center assets, which will help companies stay ahead of the Orders mandates. The reports typically include specific data obtained from the network, any information regarding exploitation of exposures, and the attempts to gain access to sensitive data.

A superior assessment report will contain documented and detailed findings as a result of performing the service and will convey the assessors opinion of how best to remedy vulnerabilities. These will be prioritized for immediate action, depending upon the level of risk. Risks are often prioritized as critical, high, medium, and low risk to the environment, and a plan can be developed based upon these prioritizations for remediation.

As outlined in Section 3 of the Order, a Zero Trust strategy is critical to addressing the above steps, and must include establishing policy, training the organization, and assigning accountability for updating the policy.

Defined by the National Security Agency (NSA)s Guidance on the Zero Trust Security Model: The Zero Trust model eliminates trust in any one element, node, or service by assuming that a breach is inevitable or has already occurred. The data-centric security model constantly limits access while also looking for anomalous or malicious activity.[3]

Properly implemented Zero Trust is not a set of access controls to be checked, but rather an assessment and implementation of security solutions that provide proper network and hardware segmentation as well as platform micro-segmentation and are implemented at all layers of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model. A good position to take is that Zero Trust should be implemented using a design where all of the solutions assume they exist in a hostile environment. The solutions operate as if other layers in a companys protections have been compromised. This allows isolation of the different layers to improve protection by combining the Zero Trust principles throughout the environment from perimeters to VPNs, remote access to Web Servers, and applications.

For a true Zero Trust enabled environment, focus on cybersecurity solution providers that qualify as Advanced in the NSAs Zero Trust Maturity Model; as defined in NSAs Cybersecurity Paper, Embracing a Zero Trust Security Model.[4] This means that these solution providers will be able to deploy advanced protections and controls with robust analytics and orchestration.

In order to further modernize your organizations cybersecurity protection, consider full integration and/or replacement of some existing cybersecurity systems with ones that understand the complete end-to-end threats across the network. How can an organization implement confidentiality and integrity for breach prevention?

Solutions must have built-in protections leveraging multiple automated defense techniques, deep zero-day intelligence, revolutionary honeypot sensors, and revolutionary state technologies working together to preemptively protect the environment.

As noted above, Cyemptive recommends the above steps in order to take a preemptive, holistic approach to cybersecurity defense. Cyemptive recommends initiating the above process as soon as possible not only to comply with potential government mandates brought about due to President Bidens Executive Order, but also to ensure that organizations are better prepared for the increased cybersecurity threat activity we are seeing throughout the private sector.

The rest is here:
Cybersecurity Defense: Recommendations for Companies Impacted by the Biden Administration Executive Order - JD Supra

Event Announcements (More details on the Events Calendar)

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration and International Economic Policy will hold a hearing on the historic protests in Cuba. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Jos Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, and Rosa Mara Pay Acevedo, director of Cuba Decide.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security will hold a hearing on the Transportation Security Administration's (TSAs) strategy for addressing increased summer travel. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Darby LaJoye, the TSA's executive assistant administrator for security operations, and Michael Ondocin, the TSA's executive assistant administrator for law enforcement and the federal air marshal service.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the federal government's coronavirus response. The committee will hear testimony from Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Dawn O'Connell, assistant secretary of health and human services for preparedness and response.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the nominations of Karen Donfried to be an assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Catherine Phee to be an assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Anne Witkowksy to be an assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilization operations, and Paloma Adams-Allen to be a deputy administrator of USAID for management and resources.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:15 a.m.: The Atlantic Council will host a conversation with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, on the state and future of the Belarusian democratic movement. Amna Nawaz, chief correspondent at PBS NewsHour, will moderate, and Julie Fisher, U.S. ambassador to Belarus, will offer opening remarks.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 10:30 a.m.: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on the growing threat of ransomware. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Kemba Walden, assistant general counsel for the Microsoft Corporation; Robert Lee, chief executive officer of Dragos; Christian Dameff, professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Diego; Charles Carmakal, chief technical officer of FireEye-Mandiant; and Philip Reiner, chief executive officer of the Institute for Security and Technology.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.: The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation and Europe, Energy, the Environment, and Cyber will hold a joint hearing on U.S.-European cooperation on China and the broader Indo-Pacific. The subcommittees will hear testimony from Heather Conley, senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at CSIS; and Peter Rough, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.: The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel will hold a hearing on the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Lynn Rosenthal, chair of the commission; three commission members; and Kathleen Hicks, deputy defense secretary.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 2:30 p.m.: The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development will hold a hearing on modernizing the State Department. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Marcie Ries, former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria and Albania; Annie-Marie Slaughter, chief executive officer of New America; and Stephen Biegun, former deputy secretary of state.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at 2:45 p.m.: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a hearing on the nominations of Matthew Olsen to be the assistant attorney general for national security, Stacey Dixon to be principal deputy director of national intelligence and Thomas Monheim to be intelligence community inspector general.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Global Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on grassroots peacebuilding efforts between Israelis and Palestinians. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, director of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace; Nada Majdalani, Palestinian director for EcoPeace Middle East; Meredith Mishkin Rothbart, co-founder and chief executive officer of Amal-Tikva; and Daniel Runde, director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense will hold a hearing on Navy and Air Force weapon systems divestments. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Vice Adm. Randy Crites, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources; Vice Adm. James Kilby, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities; and Lt. Gen. David Nahom, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 11:15 a.m.: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on U.S. policy to Turkey. The committee will hear testimony from Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 12:00 p.m.: The McCain Institute will host a conversation with Seamus Hughes, deputy director off the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, on his book Homegrown: ISIS in America. Hughes will be interviewed by Brette Steele, the McCain Institute's senior director of the Preventing Targeted Violence Program.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.: The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy will hold a hearing on combating climate change in East Asia and the Pacific. The subcommittee will hear testimony from two panels of witnesses, including officials from the State Department, USAID and the Pentagon.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.: The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations will hold a hearing on the fiscal 2022 budget request for Special Operations Forces and Command. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Gen. Richard Clarke, the commander of Special Operations Command, and Joseph McMenamin, senior official performing the duties of the assistant defense secretary for special operations and low intensity conflict.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.: The Wilson Center will host a panel on the role of state actors in combating ransomware. Meg King, director of the Science and Technology Program at the Wilson Center, will deliver the introductory remarks and Rep. Jim Himes will deliver the keynote address. The panel will be moderated by Ellen Nakashima, national security reporter at the Washington Post, and the panelists will be Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the Silverado Policy Accelerator; Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kenan Institute; and King.

Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on terrorism and digital financing. The subcommittee will hear testimony from Stephanie Dobitsch, deputy undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis; Jeremy Sheridan, assistant director of the Secret Service's Office of Investigations; and John Eisert, assistant director for investigative programs at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Brookings Institution will host a discussion on the international communitys response to the political and humanitarian crises in Myanmar. Jonathan Stromseth, Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asian Studies at Brookings, will moderate a panel that will include Mary Callahan, associate professor of international studies at University of Washington; Kavi Chongkittavorn, senior fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University; Aye Min Thant, features editor at Frontier Myanmar; and Derek Mitchell, former U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar.

Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 12:00 p.m.: The McCain Institute will host a conversation between former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May on the United States transatlantic alliances.

Friday, July 23, 2021, at 12:30 p.m.: The Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will host a discussion on transatlantic data transfers in the context of ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and the E.U. regarding the replacement of privacy shield. Rep. Suzan DelBene will deliver a keynote address before a panel moderated by Steven Overly, reporter at Politico. The panelists include Barbara Cosgrove, vice president at Workday; Sharon Bradford Franklin, co-director of the Center for Democracy & Technology; Cameron Kerry, Brookings visiting fellow; and Peter Swire, professor at Georgia Tech.

Employment Announcements (More details on the Job Board)

The following are job announcements of potential interest toLawfarereaders. If you have an announcement to add to the page,emailus.

Senior Research Program Manager, Hoover Institution at Stanford University

The Hoover Institution is seeking qualified candidates for a full-timeSenior Research Program Managerfor the Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group and subsidiary programs. The ideal candidate will be highly organized with work experience in both business and national security and a familiarity with academic institutions and research. If you are both strategic and practical, enjoy directing complex programs, managing policy-relevant research projects, and cultivating professional and business partnerships, we encourage you to apply today to support Hoovers mission.

Resume and cover letter required for full consideration.

About Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution:The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace is a public policy research center devoted to the advanced study of economics, politics, history, and political economyboth domestic and foreignas well as international affairs.

Founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover before he became the thirty-first president of the United States, the Institution began as a repository of historical material gathered at the end of World War I. The library and archives have grown to be among the largest private repositories of documents on twentieth-century political and economic history. Over time the Institution expanded its mission from collecting archival material to conducting advanced research on contemporary history and economics and applying this scholarship to current public policy challenges.

With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity while securing and safeguarding peace for America and all humanity.

JOB PURPOSE:

The Senior Research Program Manager reports to Hoover Senior Fellow and is responsible for managing the Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group and subsidiary programs in consultation with the senior leadership.

The Hoover Institutions new Working Group on Technology, Economics and Governance brings together Hoover senior scholars from across fields with private sector leaders to address key questions at the nexus of technology, economics, and governance. The Working Group seeks to understand the drivers and dynamics of technological innovation in the 21st century, assess the opportunities and risks that breakthrough technologies are creating, and develop governance approaches that maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks for the nation and the world. The Working Group will conduct original research to better understand the current state of innovation as well as its causes and likely effects. This policy-relevant research will inform workshops and engagement with both private sector and public sector leaders and the development of policy recommendations for decision-makers at all levels of government.

CORE DUTIES:

ADDITIONAL CORE DUTIES*:

* The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Education & Experience:

Bachelors degree and eight years of relevant experience, or combination of education and relevant experience. Masters degree or equivalent experience, with a background in business, political science, economics, or law strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Desired/Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Certifications and Licenses:

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS*:

*Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of his or her job.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

WORK STANDARDS:

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Program Manager, Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties, R Street Institute

The R Street Institutea free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with regional offices across the countryseeks a motivated, organized program manager to help us implement and maintain systems for our projects and grants. This position reports to the Policy Director, Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties. If you want to join an energetic organization and do something extraordinary, this may be just the opportunity you need.

A typical day at R Street may include drafting grant reports; reviewing and tracking the fulfillment of committed project deliverables and associated metrics of success on a restricted grant; monitoring the progress and resource allocation to date on a particular project; improving the estimation of time invested across the organization for creating a white paper; and mentoring your colleagues in project management. Note: this is not a policy writing or policymaking role, though it will be what you make of itproviding opportunities to take on more responsibility and leadership if you have the drive, passion and skills.

Aspects of Your Role

Skills and Qualifications

Workplace

R Street offers a flexible working arrangement. This is a full-time position that can either work the majority of the week in our DC office or be fully remote.

Compensation, Benefits and Perks

R Street strives to provide a compensation package superior to those at other think tanks and nonprofits. In addition to a competitive salary, we provide the following benefits and perks:

R Street does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, era of military service, gender identity or anything else thats illegal, immoral or nonsensical to use as a basis for hiring.

We currently plan to accept applications for this job until filled. We will contact qualified individuals for telephone interviews and conduct them on a rolling basis. Interviews will be held virtually, via Zoom.

To apply, you must upload a cover letter and resume in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Policy Program Coordinator, National Security Institute

The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School seeks a Policy Program Coordinator for the National Security Institute (NSI) on the Arlington, VA., campus. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Masons academic and culturally inclusive environment.

Responsibilities:

TheNSIPolicy Program Coordinator will be responsible for the successful planning and coordination ofNSIpolicy program efforts and events. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Required Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

This is not a supervisory position.

For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number 10581z at http://jobs.gmu.edu/ by September 1, 2021; complete and submit the online application; and upload a cover letter, resume, and a list of three professional references with contact information.

Program Assistant, National Security Institute

The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School seeks a Program Assistant for the National Security Institute (NSI) on the Arlington, VA., campus. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Masons academic and culturally inclusive environment.

Responsibilities:

Reporting to National Security Institutes Deputy Director, theNSIProgram Assistant will be responsible for the successful execution ofNSIevents and for supporting NSIs other programs. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Required Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

This is not a supervisory position.

For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number 10512z at http://jobs.gmu.edu/ by September 1, 2021; complete and submit the online application; and upload a cover letter, resume, and a list of three professional references with contact information.

Request for Resumes, Department of Defense Office of the General Counsel

The Office of the General Counsel, Department of Defense (DoD), is reviewing the resume file for potential candidates for a number of Schedule A, Excepted Service, attorney positions that are under the supervision of the Deputy General Counsel (Intelligence) and support the intelligence and security practice areas. Individuals interested in being considered are invited to review the notice at https://ogc.osd.mil/Careers/. This is not a vacancy announcement.

The office is seeking candidates with expertise relevant to the following roles:

Attorney - Experienced Level, National Security Agency

Location: Fort Meade, MD

Job ID: 1163464

Job Responsibilities

The professionals at the National Security Agency (NSA) have one common goal: to protect our nation. The mission requires a strong offense and a steadfast defense. The offense collects, processes and disseminates intelligence information derived from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The defense prevents adversaries from gaining access to sensitive or classified national security information.

The NSA Office of General Counsel's Acquisition, Research & Technology (ART) practice group is seeking superior applicants with experience in federal procurement who are interested in joining its elite team of lawyers who provide legal advice to the Agency as it carries out its missions. The ART practice group provides legal advice and representation to Agency personnel at all levels on a wide range of acquisition, installations, logistics, fiscal, environmental, export, technology transfer, and intellectual-property matters. The spectrum of issues handled by ART is broad and ART's legal advice is routinely required in novel situations. In addition to serving in an advisory capacity, ART attorneys also have the opportunity to litigate and serve as lead counsel in contract-related litigation before the Government Accountability Office and the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals while playing a supporting role to the Department of Justice in litigation before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Attorneys working in NSA OGC apply their expertise, skills, and education to solve a variety of challenges not found in the private sector or at any other government agency. You will have the opportunity to make a global impact on a daily basis as you work with other top caliber professionals at the highest levels of the Agency and across the U.S. Government. This critical work ensures that Agency operations comply with the law while also protecting both our national security and our civil liberties.

In tackling these challenges, our attorneys work directly with senior officials at various Intelligence Community and Executive Branch agencies, as well as relevant committees of Congress.

NSA attorneys work in a highly classified setting and are entrusted with tremendous responsibility as they advise the Director and other senior leaders at the Agency on a diverse and complex spectrum of issues. Because the NSA is a Department of Defense agency, our attorneys have a unique opportunity to be directly involved in national security operations working alongside military and civilian colleagues, as well as to interact with the private sector in cybersecurity and other matters.

In short, many OGC attorneys say they can't imagine working in a more exciting and important position.

Description of Position

The responsibilities of an Acquisition Attorney at the NSA can include:

Appointment to this position requires a minimum commitment of 5 year(s) in OGC before you can be eligible to apply for any other positions at the Agency.

Job Summary

The Office of General Counsel (OGC) is the exclusive NSA component responsible for providing legal services to all NSA elements. The Office of General Counsel protect NSA's interests concerning the legal and regulatory authorities, requirements, entitlements, obligations and oversight requirements under which the Agency operate.

Qualifications

Salary Range: $103,690 - $159,286 (Senior)

*The qualifications listed are the minimum acceptable to be considered for the position. Salary offers are based on candidates' education level and years of experience relevant to the position and also take into account information provided by the hiring manager/organization regarding the work level for the position.

Entry for Grade 13 is with a Professional Law Degree (LLB or JD).

Degree must be a Professional Law Degree (LL.B. or J.D.) and requires active membership in the bar of the highest court of a State, U.S. commonwealth, U.S. territory, or the District of Columbia.

Grade 13: Must have in excess of 2 years of relevant experience. Relevant experience as determined by the Office of the General Counsel (or the Office of the Inspector General for positions in the OIG) must be professional legal experience that is commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of the position. See DoD Instruction (DoDI) 1442.02 for exceptions to the grade-level standards. Active membership in the bar of the highest court of a State, U.S. commonwealth, U.S. territory, or the District of Columbia is required.

See original here:
The Week that Will Be - Lawfare - Lawfare

The United States, along with much of the world, finds itself battling two pandemics: the COVID-19 crisis, of course, but also the cyber pandemic that has also proliferated across the globe.

In the healthcare industry, some hospitals have been hobbled for weeks at a time and at least one patient has died because of the scourge of ransomware.

The cyberattacks have become so frequent and commonplace that it's worth asking whether ransomware, like many suspect is already happening with SARS-CoV-2, is already moving from pandemic to endemic status.

"Ransomware, I think, has become the greatest challenge for most organizations," said retired Admiral Michael Rogers, former director of the National Security Agency and the former commander of U.S. Cyber Command in a recent interview with Healthcare IT News.

"Healthcare [is] an incredibly attractive target in the middle of a pandemic," said Rogers, who will be speaking next month at HIMSS21 in Las Vegas. "And criminals are aware. That's one reason why you've seen a massive uptick, particularly focused on healthcare in the past 18 months from a ransomware activity perspective."

Indeed, since the early days of the pandemic not counting the vanishingly small window when the prospect of a hacker "ceasefire" was dangled the bad guys have been hard at work, targeting the World Health Organization and COVID-19 testing sites, academic research facilities and vaccine distribution supply chains.

Their targets have also included hospitals and health systems of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, the size of the ransom demands is climbing skyward.

"It's gotten worse," said Rogers, who served under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Rogers served at NSA and U.S. Cyber Command concurrently for four years before retiring in 2018.

"For a couple of reasons. Number one, the criminal segment has become much more aggressive," he said. "Why? There's a lot of money. There's a lot of money for criminal groups to be made. I may not want to pay the ransom, but I can't afford interruption or degradation of my services or operating ability to help in the middle of a pandemic. I've got to keep going."

Number two? "In the last three years since I left, nation states' risk calculus has become even more aggressive. They are willing to take even greater risks."

That's not just with ransomware. Recent headlines have shown just how far foreign cyber crooks have been willing and able to intrude upon U.S.-based information networks not just the DNC and the RNC, or Sony, but a wide array of federal agencies and private companies large and small.

Rogers points specifically to the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange server exploits, which stunned even seasoned cybersecurity professionals in their sheer size, scope and brazenness.

Meanwhile, ransomware seizures such as the Colonial Pipeline hack have helped bring the threat into sharp focus.

Finally, the president and Congress are paying attention, and federal security agencies seem willing to give as good as they get.

"On the positive side, there is clearly a sense that we are not where we need to be,and that it's going in the wrong direction," said Rogers.

But he says he is frustrated that the cybersecurity problems are not only persisting, but worsening.

A big reason for that is the current state of incident prevention and response especially when it comes to interrelation of the public and private sectors "has failed to deliver for over a decade," said Rogers. "I only speak for myself. But my frustration is: Why do we keep doing the same things and expect a different result?"

Sure, there are valuable organizations such as H-ISAC, the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which specializes in "crowdsourced" cybersecurity, sharing threat intelligence and other best practices for protection and risk mitigation. And yes, the CISA, FBI, HHS and other agencies are good about getting out alerts and warnings to the healthcare stakeholders that need to hear them.

But too often, "the government will do its thing, the private sector will do its thing," said Rogers. "As we see things we think might be of interest to the other, as we have the time, and as we have the inclination, we'll share those insights.

"Everyone is so busy, quite frankly. Most organizations don't have time to think about it. They are just trying to defend their own systems, their own intellectual property, their own data."

To truly measure up against the scope of the cyber threatto healthcare and all industries, "I just think we've got to have a different model," he said.

"It's not about collaboration," Rogers explained. "To me, it's about integration. We've got the government and the private sector. We've got to team together 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

He acknowledged, "You can't do this at scale across every business within the private sector. But can't we start with a few sectors where the risks to our economy, to the safety and wellbeing of our citizens, to the security of our nation?Let's pick a few areas,and do some test cases, and see if a different model might produce a different result."

There are some "great examples out there where we have applied a government and private-sector model and achieved some amazing results," said Rogers.

For instance,he said, "We decided as a society that the potential loss of literally hundreds of people in an aviation accident represented such a risk that we needed to do something different," he said.

"So we created mechanisms: Every time there is an aviation accident, the federal government steps in. It partners with the airplane manufacturer, the airline that operated the aircraft, the union, et cetera. It pores over all the maintenance records. It pores over the production history of the aircraft. It looks at all the software and the hardware. It looks at how it was operated. It determines the cause of the crash.

"And then it goes a step further," he added. "It mandates that we're going to change maintenance. Sometimes we're going to change production. We're going to change the way we do software, we're going to change how the aircraft is operating.

"The net impact is we are flying more aircraftwith more people than we ever have, and yet aviation safety has actually been very strong. While we have aviation accidents, they tend not to be recurring patterns, the same cause over and over."

Compare that with cybersecurity, where we've been seeing the same techniques used by the bad guys "working over and over and over," he said.

"We have got to get to a point where the pain of one leads to the benefit of the many," said Rogers. "And yet what is happening now? The pain of the one is not shared. We don't learn from it. And so it is repeated over and over and over again. We have got to change that dynamic."

Admiral Michael S. Rogers will offer more insights at HIMSS21 as a participant in the keynote panel discussion, Healthcare Cybersecurity Resilience in the Face of Adversity. Its scheduled for Tuesday, August 10 from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in Venetian, Palazzo Ballroom.

Twitter:@MikeMiliardHITNEmail the writer:mike.miliard@himssmedia.comHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.

Read more:
Former NSA director: U.S. needs a new approach to ransomware response - Healthcare IT News

Posey: this abuse of power must stop

ABOVE VIDEO: Tucker Carlson discusses latest developments with journalist Glenn Greenwald on Tucker Carlson Tonight

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA Rep. Bill Posey (FL-08) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) led a letter to NSA Director Paul Nakasone demanding information on reports that the Agency illegally spied on Fox News host Tucker Carlson and planned to leak his personal emails to media outlets.

The letter requests that the NSA provide all documents the Agency may have involving Tucker Carlson as well as the following information:

A detailed description of the limited exceptions that would permit the NSA to target a US citizen without a court order, as the Agency understands the term as it is used in its own tweet;

A detailed description of what constitutes an emergency that would permit the NSA to target a US citizen without a court order, as the Agency understands the term as used in its own tweet;

A detailed description of the foreign activities that could harm the United States, as the Agency understands the phrase as used in its own tweet;

A full explanation of when the Agency understands it is lawful to monitor, surveil, collect, unmask, or receive data on a US citizen without a court order explicitly authorizing such targeting, including while conducted in the course of targeting foreign powers;

A detailed description of how the Agency defines domestic terrorist and when its mission could extend to targeting foreign powers who are corresponding with individuals defined as such;

A detailed description of your understanding of the term clandestine intelligence activities; and

What specific actions have been taken to hold accountable those who unmasked, approved unmasking, or shared information on unmasked U.S. citizens?

The letter is co-signed by 15 other Members: Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL-01), Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21), Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01), Rep. Greg Steube (FL-17), Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-04), Rep. Randy K. Weber (TX-14), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (TN-01), Rep. Mo Brooks (AL-05), Rep. Bob Good (VA-05), Rep. Mary E. Miller (IL-15), Rep. Jody Hice (GA-10)

Spying, unmasking, and leaking the private communications of American citizens weaponizes our intelligence agencies, and this abuse of power must stop. Protecting national security is not only about deterring enemy threats, but it also involves safeguarding our liberties, said Rep. Bill Posey.

After the disturbing treatment of Donald Trump by the Deep State, it should come as no surprise that intelligence agencies are continuing their illegal surveillance of Americans who dare to challenge power-hungry elites in Washington, D.C. Reports about the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson are reminiscent of something one would expect to see in a tyrannical dictatorship, not the United States of America where citizens supposedly still have Constitutional rights. The Agencys attempt to explain itself thus far has only raised more questions that Mr. Carlson and every citizen of this country deserve to have answered. Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Text of the letter can be found HERE.

ABOVE VIDEO: Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he feels threatened after ousting the NSA for allegedly spying on him. Carlson discusses the acts potential threat to journalists, social media censorship and his new Fox Nation show on Mornings with Maria.

General Paul M. Nakasone assumed his present duties as Commander,U.S. Cyber Commandand Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service in May 2018.

He previously commanded U.S. Army Cyber Command from October 2016 April 2018.

A native of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, GEN Nakasone is a graduate of Saint Johns University in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he received his commission through the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

GEN Nakasone has held command and staff positions across all levels of the Army with assignments in the United States, the Republic of Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

GEN Nakasone commanded the Cyber National Mission Force at U.S. Cyber Command. He has also commanded a company, battalion, and brigade, and served as the senior intelligence officer at the battalion, division and corps levels.

GEN Nakasone has served in Joint and Army assignments in the United States, the Republic of Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. His most recent overseas posting was as the Director of Intelligence, J2, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Kabul, Afghanistan.

GEN Nakasone has also served on two occasions as a staff officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

GEN Nakasone is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the Command and General Staff College, and Defense Intelligence College. He holds graduate degrees from the U.S. Army War College, the National Defense Intelligence College, and the University of Southern California.

ABOVE VIDEO: Rep. Matt Gaetz Discusses Tucker Carlsons Claims NSA Spied On Him After Agencys Denial.

See original here:
Rep. Bill Posey Signs GOP Letter to Demand Answers From NSA About Illegally Spying on Fox News Host Tucker Carlson - SpaceCoastDaily.com

By Taylor Barnes. Originally published on July 10, 2021. Republished with permission from The Intercept, an award-winning nonprofit news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Sign up for The Intercepts Newsletter.

In the latest phase of her record sentence for whistleblowing, former National Security Agency linguist Reality Winner is a short drive to the blazing hot summertime beaches on Texass Gulf coast. But she cant get near them. She cant even go into the yard of a neighbor who invited her to aid in his beekeeping project.

Convicted under the Espionage Act for having shared a classified document on threats to election security with the media, Winner has been released to home confinement but wears an unwieldy ankle bracelet. It beeps even if she strays too far within her familys yard.

Not wanting her to miss out, a high school friend showed up on a recent day with a kiddie swimming pool and some sand. Mom, Im going to the beach today, Winner said, her mother Billie Winner-Davis recalled. The pair filled the kids toy and Winner waded in.

Winners family and friends are thrilled to have her home after four years behind bars a stint that took miserable turns as her release date neared. Shecontracted COVID-19as part of a mass infection in her prison, filed asexual assault complaintagainst a guard, and wentthirsty and cold when her facility lost heat and water in February during Texass deadly winter storm.

Despite their elation that she is out of prison, though, Winners family and friends say she is far from free. Every day is still marked by intrusions, like the app carceral authorities require her to put on her phone to monitor her and needing prior approval to go to Walmart with her mother for errands. Winner is projected to be transferred from home confinement to supervised release in November.

Thats why they are continuing theiryear-and-a-half-long campaignfor a presidentialpardon or clemency, saying the whistleblower is being gagged from telling her own story.

I really want the public to know that theyre not seeing Reality Winner, theyre not hearing from Reality Winner, because she is under some serious restrictions, Winner-Davis said.

Winner-Davis added that Reality, who is under a gag order, is also banned from using social media, a condition her attorney, Alison Grinter, said is normal and up to the discretion of halfway house authorities.

Grinter,speakingrecently on Democracy Now, said a pardon for Winner is both something she and her country deserve.

Reality released a document that gave us information that we needed to know at a time that we absolutely needed to know it, Grinter said. And she was in prison not because the information was a danger or put anyone in danger. She was in prison to salve the insecurities of one man who was concerned about the validity of his election win.

*

Winner is currentlyserving thelongestprison sentence of its kind under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law used in recent years to send journalists sources to prison, even as comparable defendants have simply gotten probation for charges of mishandling classified information.

The government itself acknowledges that Winners intent was to send the document she leaked to journalists and therefore warn the American public, rather than use it for personal gain. The NSA report detailed phishing attacks by Russian military intelligence against local U.S. election officials and was published in a June 2017articleby The Intercept. (The Press Freedom Defense Fund which is part of The Intercepts parent company, First Look Institute supportedWinners legal defense.)

Released from a Fort Worth, Texas, federal prison one day shy of the four-year anniversary of her June 3 arrest, Winners path to her parents remote southern Texas home was a bumpy one. The journey began with a 23-day quarantine with five other women in a hospital patient-sized room. After that, her family picked her up for a long drive down through Texas in which they had a matter of hours to deliver her to a halfway house, where she stayed for a week before being released toher rural childhood home. There, paper labels with Arabic vocabulary words are still taped to household items early remnants from the series of events that would lead her to prison when, as a teenager eager to learn foreign languages, she signed up for the military.

Taking advantage of the window of time they had with her as they drove her to the halfway house, her family and close friends planned a series of surprises. Winner met her infant niece, whom the whistleblower had only seen on video chats and Shutterfly-printed postcards, due to visitation bans at prisonamid the pandemic.

While sitting in her parents car and sorting through her belongings, she saw the blond hair of her sister, Brittany Winner, in the distance in a park and tried to jump out of the moving vehicle. She dropped everything on her lap and just ran, her mother said. She ran to Brittany and the baby.

Her sister said the whistleblower was trembling, still unnerved by a guard who had told her that morning that she would not be released. Just the look in her eyes, she almost looked, like, dead, so traumatized and not really believing that everything was happening, Brittany Winner said. And, at some point, I was talking to her, she just reached up in the middle of my sentence to touch my face, and she said, Youre real, right?

At the southernmost point in their trip toward home, two other loved ones were waiting for her: Wendy Collins, a family friend from Philadelphia who spearheads a social media campaign calling for her pardon, and Collinss partner.

They ate at a Thai restaurant as they counted down the minutes to her report time to the halfway house. Collins hugged the whistleblower for the first time since their friendship and Collinss tireless advocacy began.

Collins said, I flew for the hug.

*

At her familysquiet home, Winner schedules her days in an orderly way, similar to her life before the arrest time slots for online yoga courses, cycling exercise routines, and a new part-time job as a researcher for a documentary filmmaker. She relishes spending time with her family dog, Domino, and cat, Fiona, since Winner lost ownership of her own pets, a dog named Mickey and cat named Mina, in the chaos after her arrest. In her down time, she sorts through books supporters have sent her and boxes of belongings from her Augusta, Georgia, home, which was raided by a fleet of armed federal agents whoseinterrogationof Winner would later be characterized by the government as a voluntary interview one in which she wasnever read her Miranda rights.

When the heat breaks in the evenings, her mother says Reality prefers to not watch TV, opting instead to breathe in fresh air on the back patio.

Looking toward the future, when she can speak publicly and take more control over her life, her sister said she expects the whistleblower to advocate for incarcerated people. Shes seen people from all walks of life just be completely taken advantage of by the system, especially people of color, Brittany Winner said. And that is something that she just cant tune out. She cant just live her quiet life.

When shes free to go to the water the Gulf of Mexico, not the kiddie pool out back the whistleblower hopes to go the Texas shoreline to plant mangroves, something Winner, long an environmental advocate, told her sister she wants to do in order to heal coastal ecosystems.

Grateful for even this incomplete freedom, the sisters send each other a near-constant flurry of updates. Not a day goes by when she and her sister dont exchange50 or more text messages and phone calls, including baby photos and videos of Reality practicing yoga with her ankle bracelet in her parents garage. I feel lucky to have my sister back, Brittany Winner said. And one of the things that I was scared of was that she was going to be changed you know, like damaged, like she wasnt going to be the same person because of four years in prison.

How can that not mess you up? But despite the trauma, I feel like shes the same,she said. At least with me. Shes the same person.

By Taylor Barnes. Originally published on July 10, 2021. Republished with permission from The Intercept, an award-winning nonprofit news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Sign up for The Intercepts Newsletter.

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Home, But Not Free: NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Adjusts to Her Release From Prison - The Texas Observer

James Bovard

Fox News host Tucker Carlsons charge that the National Security Agencyillegally spied on himand leaked his emails is enraging prominent liberals. Carlson sought to sow distrust [of the NSA], which is so anti-American, declaredMSNBC analyst Andrew Weissman, formerly the chief prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. CNN senior correspondent Oliver Darcy ridiculed Carlson for effectivelyclaimingthat Im not a crazy person overstating a case!

When did the NSA become as pure as Snow White? Do pundits presume that there is a 24-hour statute of limitation for recalling any previously-disclosed NSA crimes and abuses?

The Carlson controversycannot be understood outside the context of perennial NSA abuses. The NSA possesses a repository capable of taking in 20 billion record events daily and making them available to NSA analysts within 60 minutes, the New York Timesreported. The NSA is able to snare and stockpile many orders of magnitude times more information than did East Germanys Stasi secret police, one of the most odious agencies of the post-war era.

The FBI, for its part, is permitted to rummage through the seized data under strict restrictions. In 2018, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) courtslammed the FBIfor abusing that database with warrantless searches that violated Americans rights. After the FBI promised to repent, the FISA court to permitted FBI agents to continue rummaging in NSA troves. In April, the FISA court revealed that the FBI surveillance crime wave continues.

The FBI conductedwarrantless searchesof the data trove for domestic terrorism, public corruption and bribery, health care fraud, and other targets including people who notified the FBI of crimes and even repairmen entering FBI offices. If yousought to report a crimeto the FBI, an FBI agent may have illegally surveilled your email. Even if you merely volunteered for the FBI Citizens Academy program, the FBI may have illegally tracked all your online activity.

In 2019, the FBI unjustifiably searched the database for information on 16,000 people even though only seven of them had connections to an investigation, theNew York Times reported. FISA court Chief Judge James Boasberg lamented apparent widespread violations of the legal restrictions for FBI searchesbut shrugged them offand permitted the scouring of Americans personal data to continue.

On June 30, Americans learned that one of NSAs most intrusive surveillance engines is still being widely abused. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed thatthat the XKeyscoreprogram was being used to commandeer the email and Internet data of any American who was caught searching the web for suspicious stuff. XKeyscore enables NSA analysts to wiretap anyone simply by entering the targets email address into the database. Six months after Snowdens disclosures began, federal judge Richard Leon issued a ruling denouncing the NSA surveillance regime asalmost Orwellian: I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.

Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, released his declassified dissent to that civil liberties watchdog board recent report on XKeyscore. Hundreds of illegal or prohibited searches were apparently committed using XKeyscore in 2019. LeBlanc complained that the oversight board failed to ask how many U.S. personshave been impactedby XKeyscore, how much data the program collects and analyzes, how widely information analyzed through XKeyscore is shared.

However, the oversight board did not even request specific information about violations of U.S. law by NSA.

Americans have probably not seen even the tip of the iceberg of NSA abuses. NSA apparently never even bothered doing a formal analysis of the legality or constitutionality of XKeyscore until 2016, after the oversight board specifically requested such information. LeBlanctold the Washington Post:What concerns me most is that we have a very powerful surveillance program that eight years or so after exposure, still has no judicial oversight, and what I consider to be inadequate legal analysis and serious compliance infractions.

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the most dogged congressional watchdog of federal spying,declaredthat Americans still know far too little about the governments surveillance activities and how it threatens their privacy. Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is muzzled from disclosing the NSAs confidential dirt.

NSA is like an accused murderer who continually proclaims his innocence up until the moment a video surfaces of him pulling the trigger. After Carlson stated that his emails were being intercepted,the NSA issued a statementdeclaring that Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.

However, 90% of the people whose emails and other data were dragged into NSA surveillance dragnets werenot NSAs actual targets, according to a 2014 Washington Post analysis based on data that Snowden provided. Shortly before Snowdens disclosures began, National Intelligence DirectorJames Clapper lied to Congresswhen he denied that the NSA collects any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans. He was never charged for that crime, thereby encouraging falsehoods by every subsequent top federal intelligence official.

On July 7, Axios reported that Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries aboutsetting up an interviewwith Vladimir Putin shortly before he accused the NSA of spying on him. U.S. government officials became aware of Carlsons effort to interview Putin. Axios noted the possibility that one of the people Carlson was talking to as an intermediary to help him get the Putin interview was under [NSA] surveillance as a foreign agent. But NSA would still be prohibited from disclosing emails from an American citizen after unmasking his identity. As journalist Glenn Greenwald noted, It is one of thegravest crimesin the U.S. code for the NSA to leak the contents of communications that it intercepts between a foreign official and an American citizen.

In an interview scheduled for release on Monday (previewed by the Daily Mail), Carlson explained that he went public with his NSA charge defensively I dont have subpoena power. I cant arrest anybody. Icant make themanswer questions. An investigative producer for Carlsons show did file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the NSA, seeking any call records, texts, or emailsthe NSA has obtainedfrom journalist Tucker Carlsons cell phone or email, among other information.

Unfortunately, FOIA has long since become a sham. The Obama White Housedrove nails into the FOIA coffinby inventing the doctrine of White House equities, permitting political appointees to delay embarrassing disclosures for years (instead of the 20 business days the law requires). Obamas Justice Departmentformally proposedto permit federal agencies to falsely claim that FOIA-requested documents did not exist. Such travesties did not deter the media from repeating Obamas boast of having themost transparent administration in history.

NSAs power and prerogatives have been buttressed by the vast increase in federal secrecy in recent decades. Since the 1990s, the number of documents classified annually by the feds increased more than tenfold. Federal agencies are nowcreating trillions of pagesof new secrets each year, and each page is backed by a federal fist waiting to crush anyone who makes an unauthorized disclosure. Congress and the media have been complicit in tolerating the Iron Curtain that shrouds far too many federal abuses.

But Carlson has nothing to fear because the NSA is constrained by checks and balances elsewhere in the government, right? Fat chance. Any pretense that Deep State surveillance agencies were on a legal leash should have been destroyed by RussiaGate.

In December 2019, the Justice Department Inspector General reported that theFBImade fundamental errors and persistently deceived the FISA court to authorize surveilling a 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign official, Carter Page. Former FBI assistant general counsel Kevin Clinesmith admitted to falsifying key evidence to secure the FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign.

As a Wall Street Journaleditorial noted, Clinesmith changed an email confirming Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words not a source before he forwarded it. A federal prosecutor declared that the resulting harm is immeasurable from Clinesmiths action. But at the sentencing hearing, Judge Boasberggushed with sympathy: Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in government servicewhat has given his life much of its meaning. Scorning the federal prosecutors recommendation for jail time, Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist slap400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.

The FISA court has gone from pretending that federal surveillance violations dont occur topretending that such crimes dont matter. Practically the only remaining task is for the FISA court to cease pretending Americans have any constitutional right to privacy.

Tucker Carlson may or may not be in NSA cross-hairs at the moment, but there are plenty of other Americans who should be sweating. Capitol Police acting Chief Yogananda PittmantoldCongress that the Jan. 6 riots were a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists. Does federal law enforcement believe that any Trump supporter within a mile radius of the U.S. Capitol that day was a terrorist?

President Joe Bidens nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives David Chipman favorsbanning more than tenmillion AR-15 rifles owned by American citizens. The Biden administration is claiming a right to know whether every American hasbeen vaccinated for Covidand will be sending its agents door-to-door to harangue people who are unjabbed. Considering the Biden administrations histrionic rhetoric on domestic terrorism, guns, and COVID-19, it would take only a few tweaks in NSA searches to pull up vast troves of new offenders who could be targeted.

Glenn Greenwald recently observed that the Democratic Party and journalism, in general, hasaligned with the CIA, the NSA and the FBI, and has aligned and merged with the security state. But there was a time when Democrats were eloquent defenders against federal intrusions.

Democrat House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana explained in 1971 that Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of action for men in public life can be compromised quite as effectively bythe fear of surveillanceas by the fact of surveillance.

Democratic Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolinaobservedthat same year, When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, when they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their Government or to anyone else, then we shall cease to be a free society. A few decades earlier, Justice Robert Jackson, who had been Attorney General for FDR and the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crime trials,declared, Search and seizure rights belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.

Americans cannot acquiesce to illegal government surveillance without forfeiting their right to the tattered remnants of their privacy. The feds need to come clean on any surveillance and leaks that may have targeted Tucker Carlson or otherwise violated his rights. The Carlson case is a wake-up call to Congress and concerned citizens to stop any new war on dissent.

James Bovardis the author of Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, Terrorism and Tyranny, and other books. Bovard is on theUSA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is atwww.jimbovard.com

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Why NSA Vs Tucker Carlson Is An Alarm Bell For All Americans - The Free Press

Jen Easterly

After an eight-month void in official leadership, the U.S. Senate this week confirmed former Obama-era senior National Security Agency official Jen Easterly to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) amid increasingly frequent digital attacks.

Easterly, who formerly served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and as Senior Director for Counterterrorism, among other roles, takes the reins from Brandon Wales, who has served as acting director of the agency since November. Her approval was unanimous, following delays caused by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who sought to slow the appointment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to force President Joe Biden to visit the U.S.-Mexican border.

It is unfortunate that political games delayed her confirmation, but we are pleased the Senate has finally acted to confirm Jen Easterly as CISA Director, House Chairs Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY), of the Committee on Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection & Innovations, respectively, said of Easterlys appointment. At a time when cyber threats are increasing and evolving, Jen Easterly brings the experience and leadership needed to strengthen our nations cybersecurity. We look forward to working with her to ensure CISA is best positioned to fulfill its mission of protecting Federal networks and critical infrastructure.

CISA is in charge of improving cybersecurity in the government, coordinating cybersecurity efforts with states, and countering private and nation-state hackers. Recent days, however, have stressed the current limits of such capabilities. Formed in 2018 out of DHSs cyber operations, CISA has struggled to protect the nations physical and digital infrastructure against a mounting slew of attacks, even as new legislation heaps new duties on its roughly 2,500 personnel.

Today, CISA finds itself at the forefront of several major cyber incidents impacting both federal networks and the private sector, U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said. Now more than ever, our nations lead civilian cybersecurity agency needs strong leadership. Jen Easterly has a proven record of success in government and industry alike, and I applaud her confirmation by the Senate. Our nation is at a crossroads when it comes to our cybersecurity posture, and I look forward to working with Ms. Easterly to ensure CISA has the resources, workforce, and authorities it needs to effectively carry out its mission.

This year has seen an increase of high-profile cyberattacks, including the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May by an alleged Russian cybercrime gang, which crippled the energy infrastructure and supplies for nearly half of the East Coasts liquid fuels. Kaseya, an IT solutions developer, was also hit in July in a ransomware attack that exploited authentication controls to hit hundreds of small to medium-sized companies throughout the United States.

Additionally, the national security infrastructure is still reeling from the SolarWinds hack at the end of last year, which has been declared one of the most devastating in history. Global software supply chains were proven to be highly vulnerable, and the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Commerce were all among those compromised. Officials later alleged the hackers involved in that attack were linked to Russia.

Amid an uncertain time for both the public and private sectors security, many seem to be lauding an old and steady hand added for the fight. While thanking the outgoing director for his efforts in an acting capacity, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, in particular, applauded the addition of Easterly as the second-ever Senate-confirmed director to head CISA.

Jen is a brilliant cybersecurity expert and a proven leader with a career spanning military service, civil service, and the private sector, Mayorkas said. I am proud to welcome her to the DHS team and look forward to working together to protect our country from urgent cybersecurity and physical threats.

Excerpt from:
Former NSA official Jen Easterly confirmed as director of CISA - Homeland Preparedness News

A group of House Republicans sent a Tuesday letter to the National Security Agency (NSA) demanding information about allegations the agency illegally spied on Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson.

The Daily Caller first obtained the letter, which was spearheaded by Republican Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Republican Florida Rep. Bill Posey. In the letter, the lawmakers call on the NSA to provide them with information about allegations that the agency was spying on Carlson in regards to communication with U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries pertaining to a potential interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Axios reported. The Axios report referenced two sources familiar with Carlsons communications.

In late June, Carlson said that the NSA was spying on him, and reading confidential texts and emails in order to try and take his show off the air. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Says He Has Confirmed The NSA Is Spying On Him)

Its illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens, its a crime, Carlson said. Its not a third-world country. Things like that should not happen in America.

The NSA denied the allegations from Carlson.

The letter was signed by 15 other House Republicans who all called for the following information:

READ THE LETTER HERE:

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) by Henry Rodgers

After the disturbing treatment of Donald Trump by the Deep State, it should come as no surprise that intelligence agencies are continuing their illegal surveillance of Americans who dare to challenge power-hungry elites in Washington, D.C., Gohmert said in a statement to the Daily Caller. Reports about the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson are reminiscent of something one would expect to see in a tyrannical dictatorship, not the United States of America where citizens supposedly still have Constitutional rights. The Agencys attempt to explain itself thus far has only raised more questions that Mr. Carlson and every citizen of this country deserve to have answered. (RELATED: It Increasingly Looks Like Tucker Carlsons Private Emails Were Leaked To The Media By The Government)

Spying, unmasking, and leaking the private communications of American citizens weaponizes our intelligence agencies, and this abuse of power must stop. Protecting national security is not only about deterring enemy threats, but it also involves safeguarding our liberties, Posey told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Says NSA Is Leaking The Contents Of His Emails To Journalists)

The Daily Caller contacted the NSA about the letter to which they did not immediately respond.

Link:
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Demand Information From NSA About Allegations The Agency Illegally Spied On Tucker Carlson - Daily Caller