Mar 9, 2009

U.S. cybersecurity czar resigns, blames NSA

According to Network World, Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cybersecurity Center, has resigned his position effective March 13, complaining about the large role of the National Security Agency (NSA) in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Appointed less than a year ago by President Bush, M. Beckstrom is a successful entrepreneur, who has co-authored "The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", which advocates that "decentralized organizations (...) are made up of many smaller units capable of operating, growing and multiplying independently of each other, making it very difficult for a rival force to control or defeat them".

Interesting theory, which does undeniably work for spec ops, terrorist groups... and P2P trackers, LOL. But how could this ever be successful in a bureaucratic, control-obsessed environment? What was this guy thinking when he took the job?

Says M. Beckstrom about his resignation: "the threats to our democratic processes are significant if all top level government network security and monitoring are handled by any one organization, either directly or indirectly".

Aw, come on Rod, no government would ever, ever spy their own people... right?

Seriously, although I never bought into conspiracy theories and all that cr#p, I do believe in good intentions gone wrong (not to mention bad ones)... and so should you IMHO: why not take the red pill and read the EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense page?

Now, if only I could find that tin foil hat... ;)

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