The Globe And Mail is reporting today that when the Communications Security Establishment Canada goes looking for hackers and other cyber criminals, the private info of Canadians who have nothing to do with said evil doers often gets caught up in the sweep:
A 22-page “Operational Procedures for Cyber Defence” document obtained by The Globe speaks to just how Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) can log, store and study volumes of electronic communications that touch government computer networks – including the “private communications” of Canadians not themselves thought to be hackers.
Full details about the tradeoffs involved in CSEC’s operations are known only to one outsider – Minster of National Defence Rob Nicholson, the official who approves such surveillance, and who is provided with statistics about its risks.
That’s not good. I’m all for making sure that Canada is safe from cyber threats. But when it affects the personal info of Canadians, I think that’s when you have to start looking closer at this to see if that can be avoided:
“We need to start asking a lot of questions about how the cybersecurity part of the CSEC mandate is being carried out,” said Tamir Israel, a lawyer at an Internet-policy think tank in Ottawa.
Thus, I think this needs to be discussed in the open in a robust manner as I believe that the privacy of Canadians cannot be sacrificed just to get the bad guys.
Agree? Disagree? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
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This entry was posted on July 31, 2014 at 8:29 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Privacy, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Private Data Often Caught Up In Canadian Intelligence Sweeps: Globe & Mail
The Globe And Mail is reporting today that when the Communications Security Establishment Canada goes looking for hackers and other cyber criminals, the private info of Canadians who have nothing to do with said evil doers often gets caught up in the sweep:
A 22-page “Operational Procedures for Cyber Defence” document obtained by The Globe speaks to just how Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) can log, store and study volumes of electronic communications that touch government computer networks – including the “private communications” of Canadians not themselves thought to be hackers.
Full details about the tradeoffs involved in CSEC’s operations are known only to one outsider – Minster of National Defence Rob Nicholson, the official who approves such surveillance, and who is provided with statistics about its risks.
That’s not good. I’m all for making sure that Canada is safe from cyber threats. But when it affects the personal info of Canadians, I think that’s when you have to start looking closer at this to see if that can be avoided:
“We need to start asking a lot of questions about how the cybersecurity part of the CSEC mandate is being carried out,” said Tamir Israel, a lawyer at an Internet-policy think tank in Ottawa.
Thus, I think this needs to be discussed in the open in a robust manner as I believe that the privacy of Canadians cannot be sacrificed just to get the bad guys.
Agree? Disagree? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on July 31, 2014 at 8:29 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Privacy, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.