From: Scott J
This baldly Orwellian idea is one way to make "fishy" utterances known
to the Feds, I guess. Okay, another test for the new GOP majority in
the House, then. Let's see if they stomp this with alacrity, or find
some sort of weasely compromise. They're off to a good start but this
sort of thing will keep on coming, and their fortitude will be sorely
tested.
(But I'm a little surprised that Obama wants to talk about "trusted
identity." Ahem, you mean like a birth certificate, hm?)
And: Given Gary Locke's ties to China, I'm not sure I'm more
comfortable with Commerce leading this, insofar as it is possible for
anyone with a shred of individualism in them to be comfortable with
the government doing such a thing.
In recent years, governmental overreaches of this sort tend to be
kicked to the curb once or twice, and then quietly slipped into law in
the next crisis. The similarly-aimed "Know Your Customer "
regulations which bind financial institutions to report transactions
to the Federal Government were originally promoted in the Clinton
years as an anti-drug-dealing initiative, and soundly rejected at
least twice that I recall. They ended up being approved in the wake
of 9/11 instead, tacked onto other "anti-terror" legislation. Your
bank rats on you now; it must.
--S.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20027837-501465.html
Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans
Posted by Declan McCullagh
STANFORD, Calif. - President Obama is planning to hand the U.S.
Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort
to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said
here today.
It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize
efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet,
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.
That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department
to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates
including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland
Security. The move also is likely to please privacy and civil
liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual
roles of police and intelligence agencies.
The announcement came at an event today at the Stanford Institute for
Economic Policy Research, where U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and
Schmidt spoke.
The Obama administration is currently drafting what it's calling the
National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke
said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An
early version was publicly released last summer.)
"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the
Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled
system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and
privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize
a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital
identities."
The Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office
to work on this project, Locke said.
Details about the "trusted identity" project are unusually scarce.
Last year's announcement referenced a possible forthcoming smart card
or digital certificate that would prove that online users are who they
say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by
online vendors for financial transactions.
Schmidt stressed today that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain
possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential if I don't
want to," he said. There's no chance that "a centralized database will
emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of
this," he said.
Inter-agency rivalries to claim authority over cybersecurity have
exited ever since many responsibilities were centralized in the
Department of Homeland Security as part of its creation nine years
ago. Three years ago, proposals were were circulating in Washington to
transfer authority to the secretive NSA, which is part of the U.S.
Defense Department.
In March 2009, Rod Beckstrom, director of Homeland Security's National
Cybersecurity Center, resigned through a letter that gave a rare
public glimpse into the competition for budgetary dollars and
cybersecurity authority. Beckstrom said at the time that the NSA
"effectively controls DHS cyber efforts through detailees, technology
insertions," and has proposed moving some functions to the agency's
Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
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