statism watch

Kaspersky is probably not the only one out on the interview circuit pushing the agenda.

Flashback: UN Urges International Action on Cyber Security Threat | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | New law to give police access to online exchanges | First it’s ‘For the Children’: Microsoft working to ID you online| | MySpace signs up to OpenID scheme

Dan Goodin, The Register
October 16, 2009

Kaspersky’s online police state

The CEO of Russia’s No. 1 anti-virus package has said that the internet’s biggest security vulnerability is anonymity, calling for mandatory internet passports that would work much like driver licenses do in the offline world.

The comments by Eugene Kaspersky, who is also the founder of Kaspersky Lab, came during an interview this week with Vivian Yeo of ZDNet Asia. In it, he proposed the formation of an internet police body that would require users everywhere to be uniquely identified.

“Everyone should and must have an identification, or internet passport,” he was quoted as saying. “The internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the US military. Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong…to introduce it in the same way.”

Kaspersky, whose comments are raising the eyebrows of some civil liberties advocates, went on to say such a system shouldn’t be voluntary.

“I’d like to change the design of the internet by introducing regulation – internet passports, internet police and international agreement – about following internet standards,” he continued. “And if some countries don’t agree with or don’t pay attention to the agreement, just cut them off.”

He rejected the notion that internet protocol numbers were sufficient for tracking a user, arguing they are too easy to come by.

“You’re not sure who exactly has the connection,” he explained. “Even if the IP address is traced to an internet cafe, they will not know who the customer or person is behind the attacks. Think about cars – you have plates on cars, but you also have driver licenses.”

Kaspersky was traveling on Friday and not available to be interviewed for this article. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.

Kaspersky admitted such a system would be hard to put in place because of the cost and difficulty of reaching international agreements. But remarkably, his interview transcript spends no time contemplating the inevitable downsides that would come in a world where internet anonymity is a thing of the past.

“You could make the same argument about the offline world,” said Matt Zimmerman, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “You know, every purchase you make should be tracked, we should ban the use of cash, we should put cameras up everywhere because in that massive data collection something might be collected to help someone. But we think privacy is an important enough countervailing value that we should prevent that.”

In Kaspersky’s world, services such as Psiphon and The Onion Router (Tor) – which are legitimately used by Chinese dissidents and Google users alike to shield personally identifiable information – would no longer be legal. Or at least they’d have to be redesigned from the ground up to give police the ability to surveil them. That’s not the kind of world many law-abiding citizens would feel comfortable inhabiting.

And aside from the disturbing big-brother scenario, there are the problematic logistics of requiring every internet user anywhere in the world to connect using an internationally approved device that authenticates his unique identity. There’s no telling how many innovations might be squashed under a system like that.

No doubt, the cybercriminals that Kaspersky has valiantly fought for more than a decade are only getting better at finding ways to exploit weaknesses in internet technologies increasingly at the heart of the way we shop, socialize and work. But to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, those who sacrifice net liberty for incremental increases in security no doubt will get neither.

Source | See also under Internet: UN Urges International Action on Cyber Security Threat | Think before you post, privacy czar says | Judge in Pirate Bay Appeal Removed for Bias | Case for Internet spying not closed | US ‘to loosen’ grip on internet | U.S. moves to adopt 6 net neutrality rules | Tech giants respond to Media with ideas on charging readers for news online | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | Chamber of commerce draws fire for backing Bell, Telus on Net reseller speed limits | It’s a great day for freedom of speech: ‘Hate Speech’ laws found to violate Charter Rights | Keeping Google out of libraries | Cyber Bullying Case Officially Dismissed for Vagueness | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Bill would give president emergency control of Internet | Bush’s Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept | ACLU Sues US Department of Homeland Security over Border Laptop Searches | Facebook to make privacy changes, keep user data indefinitely if not deleted | UK Government to consider internet disconnection policy, restrictions | CRTC wants internet pricing answers from Bell | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Former copyright lobbyist is Obama’s top pick for US Attorney | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | iPods, Internet won’t end dictatorship | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Facebook violates privacy law: watchdog | Cyber Attacks Traced to the U.S., Britain | Don’t regulate traffic management, Internet providers argue | Yahoo! protects user privacy — and gets fined by Belgium | French Senate passes revamped ‘anti-piracy’ bill | Lazy Hacker and Little Worm Set Off Korean Cyberwar Media Frenzy | Net Neutrality hearings begin with conflicting claims | Internet speed control faces scrutiny at CRTC hearings | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Should linking be illegal? | Psiphon braintrust: Ottawa needs a strategy for cyberwar | US ‘concerned’ over cyber threat | Pirate Bay Retrial Denied | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | US Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | The dawn of Internet censorship in Germany | Twitter emerges as news source during Iran media crackdown | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Prepare to be boarded! Pirate Party wins entry to European Parliament | Stockholm Court: Pirate Bay Judge ‘Unbiased’ | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | CRTC keeps new media exempt from broadcasting regulation | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | China begins internet ‘blackout’ ahead of Tiananmen anniversary | UK chases Obama on cybersecurity | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship | France passes ‘three strikes’ Internet surveillance law | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | UK wants industry to track Internet users as plans scrapped for state database | Fredericton police arrest well-known N.B. blogger on legislature grounds | Pirate Bay lawyer calls for retrial after judge confirms ties to copyright groups | Jail terms for Pirate Bay founders, appeal in works | French legislators reject internet piracy bill | Put NSA in Charge of Cyber Security, Or the Power Grid Gets It | Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies | Pentagon spending millions to fix cyberattacks | Aussies Announce $31B National Broadband Network | Britons block Google Street View van | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | Google Street View comes to Canada | In Australia, censored hyperlinks could cost you | ISOHunt points out Google, Yahoo torrent engines too | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Internet ad tracking system will put a ’spy camera’ in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web | French government accused of ‘Big Brother’ tactics over internet piracy | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Time to regulate online content, cultural groups tell CRTC | Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information | Do We Need a New Internet? | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Britain unveils plans for nationalized internet service | Google plans to make PCs history | EU Police set to step up warrantless hacking of home PCs | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | UK Culture secretary wants international age restrictions for web | Protests in Australia over proposal to block Web sites | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | China restarts online crackdown | CRTC Internet regulation proposals take shape | Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals | Felony hacking precedent not set in case of Myspace cyberbully | Myspace terms of use could become fulcrum for destruction of online anonymity in precedent setting case | Bell can squeeze downloads, CRTC rules | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship | Microsoft patents web moderator robots, forbidden phrases to be memory-holed | CRTC to consider Internet regulation, invites public comment | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Is an Internet tax coming? | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Berners-Lee W3C Consortium to ‘Authorize’ Website Content? | Digital issues deserve spot in election campaign | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck | Bell continues throttling Internet, proposes bandwidth caps for resellers | Rogers Looks For New Ways To Annoy Customers, Hijacks Failed DNS Lookups | MySpace signs up to OpenID scheme | Vint Cerf blasts ISPs for choking off internet infrastructure | Bell’s internet throttling illegal, Google says | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | CRTC revisits Internet oversight | Bell accused of privacy invasion | Canada Considering “Three Strikes and You’re Out” ISP Policy | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 11:03 pm and is filed under privacy. 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.