The role of an Inspector General (IG) office in a federal agency or department is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and where necessary refer criminal conduct to the Justice Department for prosecution. But what happens when the IG itself is corrupt, especially in a national security context where secrecy can be used to conceal malfeasance?… continue »
NSA headquarters, Ft. Meade, Md.
In December, Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the NSA, placed the agency’s Inspector General (IG), Dr. George Ellard, on administrative leave and recommended he be removed from his position after an investigation into whether he retaliated against a whistleblower was conducted by a panel of IGs at the CIA, Treasury and Justice Department.… continue »
The legal authority behind the controversial PRISM and Upstream surveillance programs used by the NSA to collect large swaths of private communications from leading Internet companies – Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2017.… continue »
With high-profile hacks in the headlines and government officials trying to reopen a long-settled debate about encryption, information security has become a mainstream issue. But we feel that one element of digital security hasn’t received enough critical attention: the role of government in acquiring and exploiting vulnerabilities and hacking for law enforcement and intelligence purposes.… continue »
David Medine left the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on July 1, 2016, after three years of dedicated service and leadership as the board’s Chairman. As the board’s first Chief Legal Officer, I want to take a moment to reflect on his and the board’s successes.… continue »
The Obama administration has sought to temporarily relaunch the NSA’s bulk telephone records collection program, which was wound down over recent weeks as its legal foundation, §215 of the Patriot Act, briefly lapsed during the debate over the USA Freedom Act. … continue »
I recently conducted a wide-ranging Q+A with the ACLU’s chief technologist, Chris Soghoian, on a range of topics, from the “fraudulent” nature of the recent debate over Section 215 of the Patriot Act to the dire need for more technological expertise among those tasked with overseeing the Intelligence Community in the 21st Century.… continue »
The Senate today decisively rejected each of the proposed amendments to the House-passed USA Freedom Act (see roll call votes here). It then approved the bill by a vote of 67-32 (with Lindsey Graham not present). Vote tally below. The President is expected to sign the legislation shortly.… continue »
Because the gods of traffic metrics are stern taskmasters, you’ll likely read a lot of headlines today about “the expiration of the Patriot Act,” possibly paired with the implication that Rand Paul has singlehandedly dealt the National Security Agency some sort of crippling defeat. … continue »
It’s great that the sunset of Section 215 has reignited the debate about mass surveillance in the United States, but all the focus on this one provision, more specifically on the telephone metadata program it permited, may miss the mark, according to Chris Soghoian, the ACLU’s chief technologist and longtime fixture at the intersection of digital security and privacy.… continue »
