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

Interesting Statistic

[bigtallmofo]

If the NSA becomes the "Internet Traffic Cop", can it be said that 99.9% of the NSA's budget is devoted to pornography?

erm...

[REBloomfield]

I can't read the article, as my wonderful UK Government overseers have deemed it bad enough to go on the proxy blacklist, but... how is policing Government networks the same as policing the entire Internet???

Re:NSA == Spy && !SecurityInforcer

[qbzzt]

That does not make sense; is not the job of the NSA to brake security of any network in order to easedrop on the conversations? It is a spy agency, not a security agency.

The assumption is that a spy agency will have a good idea what kind of holes would allow other spy agencies to break in. Not a bad idea, IMAO.

My Rights Online?

[yotto]

How does this affect MRO? They're not looking at my traffic, impeding my traffic, or even thinking about my traffic. They're routing government traffic.

And they're a government agency. /confused.

Oh that.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's hyperbole.

It's how we have debates over here in America. First we take out the facts. Look at them. Create the most extreme, yet superficially similar argument from them. Then we shoot them in the head, and bury them in a shallow grave. If anyone dares to impugn our integrity we first call them a "name-caller" but in much less flattering terms, and cite the fact that they are thus as proof of their unreasonable bias. If that doesn't work, we turn of their mic while our friends yell at them until we throw to commercial.

Why do we behave in such a course, pointless and ignorant manner? A good question. I'm glad you asked it. We do it for the children. Now I've really got to take a break.

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: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