[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 08/10/11
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:22:13 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:18:11 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 08/10/11
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SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 77
August 10, 2011
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** OFFENSIVE CYBER TOOLS TO GET LEGAL REVIEW, AIR FORCE SAYS
** SOME CRS REPORTS ON ECONOMIC POLICY
** "WHEN SECRECY GETS OUT OF HAND"
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OFFENSIVE CYBER TOOLS TO GET LEGAL REVIEW, AIR FORCE SAYS
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Even the most highly classified offensive cyberwar capabilities that are
acquired by the Air Force for use against enemy computer systems will be
subject to "a thorough and accurate legal review," the U.S. Air Force said
in a new policy directive.
The directive assigns the Judge Advocate General to "ensure all cyber
capabilities being developed, bought, built, modified or otherwise acquired
by the Air Force that are not within a Special Access Program are reviewed
for legality under LOAC [Law of Armed Conflict], domestic law and
international law prior to their acquisition for use in a conflict or other
military operation."
In the case of cyber weapons developed in tightly secured Special Access
Programs, the review is to be performed by the Air Force General Counsel,
the directive said. See "Legal Reviews of Weapons and Cyber Capabilities,"
Air Force Instruction 51-402, 27 July 2011:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afi51-402.pdf
The Air Force directive is somewhat more candid than most other official
publications on the subject of offensive cyber warfare.
Thus, "for the purposes of this Instruction, an Air Force cyber capability
requiring a legal review prior to employment is any device or software
payload intended to disrupt, deny, degrade, negate, impair or destroy
adversarial computer systems, data, activities or capabilities."
On the other hand, cyber capabilities requiring legal review "do not include
a device or software that is solely intended to provide access to an
adversarial computer system for data exploitation," the directive said.
One challenge facing such legal reviews is that law and policy in the
relatively new field of cyberwar are not fully articulated. Another
challenge is that where applicable law and policy do exist, they may be
inconsistent with the use of offensive cyber tools.
In response to a question on cyberwarfare from the Senate Armed Services
Committee at his confirmation hearing last year, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander of
U.S. Cyber Command said: "President Obama's cybersecurity sixty-day study
highlighted the mismatch between our technical capabilities to conduct
operations and the governing laws and policies, and our civilian leadership
is working hard to resolve the mismatch."
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2010_hr/041510alexander-qfr.pdf
But he added: "Given current operations, there are sufficient law, policy,
and authorities to govern DOD cyberspace operations. If confirmed, I will
operate within applicable laws, policies, and authorities. I will also
identify any gaps in doctrine, policy and law that may prevent national
objectives from being fully realized or executed to the Commander, U.S.
Strategic Command and the Secretary of Defense."
Asked whether DoD possesses "significant capabilities to conduct military
operations in cyberspace," Gen. Alexander would only provide an answer on a
classified basis.
The Pentagon does not often acknowledge the existence of offensive cyber
capabilities. The "Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in
Cyberspace" that was released in unclassified form last month does not
address offensive cyber warfare at all.
http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/dod-cyber.pdf
SOME CRS REPORTS ON ECONOMIC POLICY
New reports from the Congressional Research Service on topics of economic
policy include the following.
"Boosting U.S. Exports: Selected Issues for Congress," July 21, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41929.pdf
"Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis
Economy," July 18, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41332.pdf
"Inflation: Causes, Costs, and Current Status," July 26, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30344.pdf
"Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market,"
July 25, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41932.pdf
"The Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF): State Insolvency and Federal Loans to
States," July 8, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22954.pdf
"Can Contractionary Fiscal Policy Be Expansionary?," June 6, 2011:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41849.pdf
"WHEN SECRECY GETS OUT OF HAND"
The government's relentless pursuit of people suspected of mishandling or
leaking classified information underscores the need to combat the misuse of
classification authority, wrote J. William Leonard, the former director of
the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), in an op-ed in the Los
Angeles Times today.
"The Obama administration, which has criminally prosecuted more leakers of
purportedly classified information than all previous administrations
combined, needs to stop and assess the way the government classifies
information in the first place."
"Classifying information that should not be kept secret can be just as
harmful to the national interest as unauthorized disclosures of
appropriately classified information," he wrote. See "When Secrecy Gets Out
of Hand" by J. William Leonard, Los Angeles Times, August 10:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/op-ed/
Mr. Leonard recently filed a complaint with the new ISOO director, John
Fitzpatrick, based on his assessment that a document that served as a basis
for criminal prosecution in the case of Thomas Drake should never have been
classified at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/us/02secret.html
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_______________________________________________
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation
of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
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Secrecy News is archived at:
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Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
http://www.fas.org/member/donate_today.html
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_______________________
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Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@xxxxxxx
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood
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