ClydeR
02-18-2010, 10:36 AM
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks
By Ellen Nakashima
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
More... (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057.html)
I see two problems with this.
First, the government should not be getting into private enterprise. That's socialism!
Second, I have concerns about the NSA seeing private information. The article reassuringly says that "the deal does not mean" that the NSA will have access to private information. That's ambiguous. It could mean that the NSA will not have access to private information, or it could mean that the NSA will have access to private information but not because of this deal. As a patriotic American, I support allowing the NSA to eavesdrop of people who are talking to terrorists, and I don't want this deal to interfere with that.
By Ellen Nakashima
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
More... (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057.html)
I see two problems with this.
First, the government should not be getting into private enterprise. That's socialism!
Second, I have concerns about the NSA seeing private information. The article reassuringly says that "the deal does not mean" that the NSA will have access to private information. That's ambiguous. It could mean that the NSA will not have access to private information, or it could mean that the NSA will have access to private information but not because of this deal. As a patriotic American, I support allowing the NSA to eavesdrop of people who are talking to terrorists, and I don't want this deal to interfere with that.