In an article posted online http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/28918?c=cyber_security a privacy group pushing the government to define cyber security standards. After President Obama signed an executive order concerning cyber security questions have arisen concerning how the new Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) works and what is EPIC supposed to target. "EPIC, which also pushed for solid privacy and civil rights protections based on DHS privacy policies and the president’s “Fair Information Practices (FIPs), said most Cyber security issues amount to civilian crimes committed in cyberspace and are best handled by state and local law enforcement and not as matters of national security. Misappropriation of intellectual property, cyber-espionage, and hacktivism, don’t pose national security threats and should not be treated as such, it said."
Overall, EPIC has been pushing for greater control to approach cyber-security's framework by reducing risks to critical infrastructure. The privacy group is concerned that because EPIC's reach is long and restrictions are vague; that personal privacy is will be infringed upon. According to EPIC, it really focuses on threats to the infrastructure, but then makes statements that suggest that cyber security falls under national security."
When I originally read this article I thought -- Okay, this is just another crazy privacy group looking for any possible complaint to lodge. But in retrospect I think that it is something to follow. What type of authority does EPIC have? It seems like the words "national security" seems to have magical powers that trump privacy concerns.
I thought that I would leave with a quote from EPIC, “Too often claims of national security tip the transparency-secrecy scale towards secrecy; thus the Cybersecurity Framework should clearly define what encompasses national security threats. Even those aspects of the Cybersecurity Framework that do fall under national security should be transparent whenever possible.”
Does the privacy group have a justified concern?
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