Feds weigh expansion of Internet monitoring

Fed weigh expansion of Internet monitoring

SAN FRANCISCO--Homeland Security and the National Security Agency may be taking a closer look at Internet communications in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security's top cybersecurity official told CNET on Wednesday that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, which is designed to detect and prevent electronic attacks, to networks operated by the private sector. The technology was created for federal networks.

Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, said in an interview that the department is evaluating whether Einstein "makes sense for expansion to critical infrastructure spaces" over time.

Not much is known about how Einstein works, and the House Intelligence Committee once charged that descriptions were overly "vague" because of "excessive classification." The White House did confirm this week that the latest version, called Einstein 3, involves attempting to thwart in-progress cyberattacks by sharing information with the National Security Agency.

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I would really like to find some more information on this "Eisenstein" technology. I did some quick searching on google and there isn't much known about this, although if anyone finds some better information than I have found feel free to add it in this thread because I'd like to know how it works since they are keeping this on the d/l pretty well.

Cybersecurity: CDT Cautions Against Government Surveillance of Private Networks

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee reported a bill that would require the government to disclose information about the intrusion detection system for government computers that has been dubbed, "Einstein." Section 340 of the Intelligence Committee's Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2010 (S. 1494) would require the government to report to Congress about privacy impact of Einstein, the legal authority supporting it, and about any audits that have been conducted on its operations. The bill, and recent press accounts, prompt CDT to ask the Administration to reveal more about Einstein.

There's no doubt that the government needs better cybersecurity immediately. Malicious code has been found in the computers that run the electric power grid, and terabytes of data about the Pentagon's $300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet were recently stolen by computer spies.

Einstein is designed to partially meet this need for civilian government computer networks. It operates to detect malicious code in communications with the government. The latest iteration - Einstein 3 - reportedly can scan the content of such communications and, using technology based on a National Security Agency system called "Tutelage," can intercept the malicious computer code before it even reaches the government system.

Einstein is obviously something that the government needs, but who knows exactly how it works and what it may actually be doing to protect "National Security" - it may and probably is abusing it's power.

Im pretty sure it has something to do with either more closely monitoring all the info thats getting passed around, or eitther something to shut the net down at a moments notice.

Considering that the project was until recently classified, it's not surprising that there is very little information about it on the internet.

Also, considering the function of "Einstein" is to monitor ALL internet traffic, do you really think someone who knew how it worked would post said information on the internet???

True, such a smart person could probably hide their tracks well enough so as to not get caught, but why would they even risk it?

[edit on 6-3-2010 by harrytuttle]