Re: Welcome! You're now on the official DHS watchlist

[Debbie Montano <debbie () METAFLOWS COM>]

I agree that a major hole here is with oversight and accountability.  No one wants those who truly wish us (or anyone) 
harm to be able to carry out their plans.  But with such broad surveillance, with little or no oversight, innocent 
people are bound to be caught up in the net.  People who have broken no laws (and who have no plans to break any laws) 
can become victims of the "no fly" list and other lists, simply through carelessness (e.g. their name matches a real 
suspect, or through a type-o in a SS#) or overzealous government activity.

I'm always suspicious of any government program which "requires" secrecy, and doesn't provide the checks and balances 
of requiring warrants and oversight by judges and other means in order for surveillance to occur.  Most in our 
government are trying to do a good job, but it's too easy, when secrecy reins, for those few who are corrupt or 
overzealous to seriously overstep the bounds.

Debbie Montano
MetaFlows, Inc
303 378 9762
debbie () metaflows com
www.MetaFlows.com




---- On Wed, 30 May 2012 13:53:16 -0600 Manjak, Martin <mmanjak () ALBANY EDU> wrote ---- 


And the irony and tragedy of all this is that citizens come to distrust their government and are less likely to 
cooperate with it. It's not unlike community policing. If the police are viewed with suspicion, they alienate the very 
people they are supposedly protecting, and make their job that much more difficult for themselves. 
 
This works both ways. If a government views its citizens with distrust, it will become increasingly alienated from its 
own people, and see its interests, and prerogatives, as distinct from those of the citizenry. At that point, its 
primary focus is not on protecting people, but protecting itself from the people. 
 
Marty Manjak 
ISO 
University at Albany 
 
The University at Albany will never ask you to reveal your password. Please ignore all such requests. 
 
-----Original Message----- 
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Solem, 
Vik P. 
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 3:40 PM 
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU 
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Welcome! You're now on the official DHS watchlist 
 
When I read a story about this topic, I wonder if the story is simply true or if it is designed to sound simple enough 
for a news byte (mis-spelling intended). 
 
Is someone really looking at a list of people whose email contain a simple list of keywords, or is that list contained 
in a few hundred lines of a 500,000 line program with a complex parsing algorithm that does the scanning? 
 
I used to believe that latter was typically the case, but I have noticed a trend in our national government. With the 
renewal of the USA PATRIOT act, the continued use of the no-fly list (classified secret), and the passing of the NDAA. 
We can see that the federal government seeks to monitor without any accountability, block people from traveling without 
having to tell them why (ever), and to do so with the power of the military operating within our borders. hmm - if I 
disappear after I post this will somebody tell my family? ;^) 
 
-Vik 
 
Vik Solem, CISSP, Sr. Applications Risk Consultant Tufts University, Information Security, vik.solem () tufts edu / 
617-627-4326 InfoSec Team: information_security () tufts edu / 617-627-6070 
 
 
 
On May 28, 2012, at 18:54 , Gene Spafford wrote: 
 
> I resent this kind of broadly-based, no-real-reason monitoring. I suggest we all use some of the words, chosen at 
random, in our social media postings. 
> 
> On May 28, 2012, at 6:42 PM, randy marchany wrote: 
> 
>> Thanks to my buddy, Bryce Galbraith for this link. If you take a look at the Cybersecurity section, all of us 
have used these words in emails since it's our job. The link pretty much says what the topic is. 
>> 
>> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-wor 
>> ds-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.html 
>> 
>> To my fellow conspirators who want a pork sandwich in Mexico, I 
>> salute you! This'll make sense when you read the article. :-) 
>> 
>> -r. 
>> 
>> 
>