NSA to Become Government Net 'Traffic Cop?'

OriginalArlen writes "The NSA may be appointed 'Internet traffic cop', overseeing data sharing among US government agencies for Homeland Security, according to an A.P. report on SecurityFocus. Apparently the aim is to improve security of all government networks." This would seem to follow in the footsteps of creating the Department of Homeland Security, since the aim is to enable better sharing of data between government institutions.

Comments

Government networks

[Anonymous Coward]

This has nothing to do with the Internet. Government networks are separated from the Internet by an air gap. Unless you have physical access to a terminal (behind the nice guys with automatic weapons who check your credentials, at least where I worked), you can't get on SIPRNet or JWICS.

I'm all for NSA making these classified networks more secure.

Re:DHS is redundant

[Erwos]

"I never could come to grips with creating a Department of Homeland Security when we already had a National Security Agency."

The National Security Agency's mandate is nothing at all like DHS's. Not even similar. If you thought about this for three seconds more, you would have also realized that NSA cannot, by law, conduct surveillance on US citizens or on US territory. This would prevent them from doing criminal investigations of any sort, wouldn't it?

This is basically akin to asking why we need the FBI when we have the CIA. The organizations have the same general goal (protect the citizens of the United States), but are supposed to be doing two entirely different things.

-Erwos

Re:Better sharing of data isn't what's needed...

[Jim_Maryland]

While the information made it to decision makers in some form, acting on every threat would be impractical. How many other reports did decision makers get that turned out to be invalid? Hind sight is always much clearer.

As for data sharing, the problem isn't technical rather it's a policy issue. "It's reorganizing leadership." - Leadership can be blamed, but it's not only at the top level as your statement about "The president did nothing about it." indicates. Each agency tends to consider their "secrets" to be more important than other agencies "secrets". Many people are responsible at various levels in the intelligence gathering process and placing blame on a single person, the president in your case, is not realistic. Many of the policies to protect information have been in place for quite a bit of time. DHS has the task of breaking down these barriers and will hopefully lead to better communication, but even with that, determining which threats are truly credible will still be a judgement call at various levels.

Re:DHS is redundant

[Wyatt Earp]

That's because you don't understand what NSA does.

"The National Security Agency (NSA) is a United States government agency responsible for both the collection and analysis of message communications, and for the security of government communications against similar agencies elsewhere. It is a part of the Department of Defense. Its eavesdropping brief includes radio broadcasting, both from organizations and individuals, the Internet, and other intercepted forms of communication, especially confidential communications. Its secure communications brief includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential or secret government communications."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA

"The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a Cabinet department of the federal government of the United States that is concerned with protecting the American homeland and the safety of American citizens. This department was created primarily from a conglomeration of existing federal agencies in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Depar tm ent_of_Homeland_Security

Office of the Secretary
Directorate of Border and Transportation Security
Transportation Security Administration
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Resonse
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection
National Cyber Security Division
Directorate of Science and Technology
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Secret Service

Re:The NSA?

[nelsonal]

If you want to learn more about the NSA and you find yourself in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, I whole heartedly reccomend going to check out the national cryptological museum which has several excellent exhibits regarding the history of codes used by countries (they have an enigma or purple and a Cray which is more than I've ever seen in other museums).