In defense of privacy

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: M. E. KABAY ON SECURITY
09/06/05
Today's focus: In defense of privacy

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Privacy: The big picture
* Links related to Security
* Featured reader resource
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This newsletter is sponsored by Ciena
Network World Executive Guide: Compliance can be an opportunity
for Network Improvements

Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are driving
increased corporate spending on key IT areas such as security,
authentication, access control and document management. Get
advice from experts. Read about real-world tactics. Learn about
the dark side of compliance: what happens when thing wrong. And,
how mandates are affecting IT budgets.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=112833
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Today's focus: In defense of privacy

By M. E. Kabay

Today I'd like to discuss a fundamental principle that security
specialists have to deal with all the time but which has a much
broader social significance than discussions of, say, firewalls:
privacy.

Have you ever heard anyone say something like, "Government
'invasion of privacy' does not matter to me; I have nothing to
hide." A more extreme position is, "People who get really hung
up on privacy issues are probably hiding something." That
quotation from a graduate student came in an online discussion
in one of the classes I taught this summer.

Taken at its simplest level, the statement could be true:
Privacy does indeed consist, in part, of confidentiality.
Confidentiality implies selective sharing of information -
allowing some people to know particular information about you
and others not to. Privacy also implies control over information
- the power to determine whether others will share information
about you, with whom and for what purpose.

Unfortunately, that second position usually has the unspoken
word "BAD" tacked on to the end: "...probably hiding something
BAD."

It's hard to counter that kind of generalization. Everyone can
think of scenarios in which criminals, cheaters and terrorists
have something to hide. I remember my amazement as 250
black-clad, self-described anarchists at a criminal hacker
convention in 1993 shouted in unison, "INFORMATION WANTS TO BE
FREE." Apart from the vision of a bunch of anarchists doing
anything in unison, what seemed incongruous was that these
people studiously used pseudonyms to protect their own privacy
while abusing other people's privacy.

But protecting privacy may mean that people are the good guys.
For example, there are many places in the world where
governments are justifiably described as criminal conspiracies.
Just go to any human-rights group Web site to find examples of
governments (or anti-government groups, for that matter) that
suppress people's rights to freedom of speech, assembly, habeas
corpus, religious expression, education or medical care, and you
will find innocent people who are afraid of their own
governments, of corrupt law enforcement agents, of ruthless
revolutionaries or of outright criminals who support or oppose
the status quo. Under these circumstances, don't you think that
anonymity and secrecy might be the hallmarks of people hiding
something good?

In our own country, there was a time a few decades ago when some
government agencies treated protesters against American
involvement in the Vietnam War as enemies of the nation, and the
president's office kept an enemies list consisting largely of
people who had criticized the president. Today, the
U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act (please don't pronounce it the way the
propagandists want you to) allows police to obtain lists of
books borrowed by named individuals from libraries or bought
from bookstores - and a gag rule preventing librarians or
booksellers from discussing these demands. To obtain a warrant
for such an invasion of privacy, police need merely assert
compelling need but no longer have to provide grounds to a judge
showing probable cause for the demand. Couple this kind of
legislative change in fundamental principles of common law with
the ability of administrative officials to imprison American
citizens without charge, without evidence, without recourse to
legal proceedings, and without limit, and can you wonder why
innocent people who disapprove of the current administration's
policies might get a little nervous?

So no, I don't think that advocating privacy rights and
insisting on the rule of law means that someone is "probably
hiding something bad."

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsecuritynewsal6225>

2. Cell carriers tackle Katrina damage
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec6399>

3. 2005 salary survey
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsecuritynewsal3996>

4. Google dives deeper into networking
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec6096nlsecuritynewsal6221>

5. Katrina news
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsecuritynewsal6321>

Today's most-forwarded story:

Cell carriers tackle Katrina damage
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlsec6400>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: M. E. Kabay

M. E. Kabay, Ph.D., CISSP, is Associate Professor in the
Division of Business and Management at Norwich University in
Northfield, Vt. Mich can be reached by e-mail
<mailto:mkabay@norwich.edu> and his Web site
<http://www2.norwich.edu/mkabay/index.htm>.

New information assurance journal - Norwich University Journal
of Information Assurance (NUJIA). See
<http://nujia.norwich.edu/>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Ciena
Network World Executive Guide: Compliance can be an opportunity
for Network Improvements

Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are driving
increased corporate spending on key IT areas such as security,
authentication, access control and document management. Get
advice from experts. Read about real-world tactics. Learn about
the dark side of compliance: what happens when thing wrong. And,
how mandates are affecting IT budgets.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=112832
_______________________________________________________________
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE
VoIP

For the latest in VoIP, check out NW's Research Center on this
very topic. Here you will find a collection of the latest news,
reviews, product testing results and more all related to keeping
VoIP networks performing at their best. Click here for more:
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/voip.html>
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