Obama Signs Executive Order At National Cybersecurity Summit
President Obama spoke today in Silicon Valley about events affecting cybersecurity and the development of the Internet. During the speech, Obama spoke on four areas that he believes must be improved.
The President's four main priorities were the development and evolution of the Internet, cybersecurity, the rights of individuals in regards to the Internet, and cooperation between the government and companies in these efforts.
Since the advent of the Internet, it has rested mostly in the hands of business in the private sector with limited government regulation. As a result, the Internet has faced some difficulties in its evolution. He said that corporations do not always work well together to defend against cyber threats and have taken advantage of their power over the Internet. The President made it clear that this cannot continue, but the Internet cannot be run solely as a government service, either.
The detection of cyber threats occurs mostly in the private sector, and as a result, in order to protect against these threats, cooperation is mandatory. Obama said it would be impossible for the government to secure the private business. Cooperation between business and the government is mandatory, to ensure that cyber threats are not given the chance to spread and are stopped in all areas when they are first detected.
The President called for the development of a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights," which will regulate what companies can do with information gathered from individuals. Individuals in turn should have the right to know what information is gathered from them and how it is used. Until now, there has been little regulation on the ability of companies to gather and use this information, even if it violates individual privacy.
Obama acknowledged all the blame does not rest solely on corporations. "Grappling with how government protects the American people from adverse events, while at the same time making sure the American government itself is not abusing its capabilities is hard. The cyberworld is sort of like the wild wild west, and we are asked to be the sheriff," he said.
The President explained that this requirement to protect us against cyber threats forces the government to try to walk the line between invading the privacy of individuals and protecting them. Although the government doesn't want to invade the privacy of individuals, it is hard to separate potential cyber threats from other activity.
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At the end of the speech, Obama signed an executive order. The executive order establishes rules to regulate the sharing of information between the private sector and the government. This takes the first step towards achieving the cybersecurity goals the President addressed in his speech today.
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rluker5 Some nice sounding hollow words followed by an order for the private sector to allow some degree of invasion of privacy by the government. Hopefully this doesn't tie in to the FCC's upcoming regulation of the internet this month. I hear the golf courses in Hawaii are beautiful this time of year. This guy deserves a break.Reply -
gsxrme I have nothing to hide, so unless your worried about something your doing wrong who gives a shit.Reply
Snoop away, there will be a-lot of World of Warcraft reports on the Obama's desk. -
dark_strike If has nothing to do about what you have to hide gsxrme. It has to do with invasion of privacy. 99% of the people out there have nothing to hide. Yet they don't want anyone up in there business.Reply -
Freedom Miner @ gsxrme "I have nothing to hide"... "Snoop away"... That has to be the saddest comments I've heard from someone in a bit. Have you ever even bothered to ever look at the constitution? I bet it doesn't bother you one bit that courageous people who've tried to be decent citizens and blown the whistle on the wickedness, illegality, and corruption of this administration have been turned into criminals by this admin in particular. Despite the fact they did the right thing. You wouldn't care if the majority of us were taken away never to be seen again as long as it doesn't affect you. The fact that the administration may as well be using the constitution as toilet paper doesn't bother you one bit. Why should it? Why would someone so cowardly and beyond hope care? You're the perfect human drone the powers that be have been aiming to develop through decades of generational dumbing down and brainwashing. Too pathetic for words...Reply -
falchard God I hate this president. I don't think it matters who the president was, they would still take the same dumbass steps into making the Internet a Utility.Reply
What's worse is his 4 priorities are contradictory. Probably the biggest cyber security threat is the back door the NSA builds into OSes and machines now. What he seems to be advocating now is the censorship of the internet in the same way broadcast news was censored in the '70s.
Why do individuals need rights when they have no restriction? Its really to discuss what limits the government will place on individuals and the rights they will have after words.
Seriously difficulty in the evolution of the internet? Have you not seen the internet? It is the fastest evolving media thanks to its unregulated free-market environment.
Man I hate this president. I wish we still hung dictators.
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dark_strike @ falchard @ Freedom MinerReply
Amen brothers(sorry if either one of you are a woman, just a phrase). There is something that a lot of people don't understand though. Now I know I am going to piss off a whole slew of people. This has to be said though. Obama is a baby boomer. Baby boomers don't understand the internet. The internet may have been developed by that generation. It was the millennials that perfected it and understood it. The internet is a living breathing, evolving being. Yet the baby boomers( I KNOW NOT ALL OF THEM ) look at it as just a tool at which anarchists cause trouble. Never taking into any real account that their is good and bad with everything. So they disguise bills under false pretense of protecting the people in reality it is something that they don't control and it pisses them off. Just like what is happening with the E-cigarettes. -
southernshark Most people are completely naive, like the fellow above who "has nothing to hide."Reply
The insidious use of this information will never be made public. It will be used behind closed doors, to pressure politicians, business leaders and public figures to make decisions that the government wants them to make, either by using blackmail or offering them information about a rival, or simply by knowing what's in their private thoughts.
Some people will say that the government would never do that, those people are complete idiots. -
Geza Fischer if you freely give the government the right to take your privacy, you are only encouraging them to take more. The more the government takes the more the citizens become conditioned to having no rights and pretty soon the government has control of everything.Reply