FC: "The Department of Homeland Security ate my dissertation..."

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

---	

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 00:46:57 -0700
To: dave@farber.net, declan@well.com
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <amicus@well.com>
Subject: "The Department of Homeland Security ate my dissertation..."
In-Reply-To: <BB2EA677.3F55B%dave@farber.net>

GMU grad student compiles extensive map of US fiber optic networks, starts 
people worrying:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23689-2003Jul7.html?nav=hptop_tb

"He can click on a bank in Manhattan and see who has communication lines 
running into it and where. He can zoom in on Baltimore and find the choke 
point for trucking warehouses. He can drill into a cable trench between 
Kansas and Colorado and determine how to create the most havoc with a hedge 
clipper. Using mathematical formulas, he probes for critical links, trying 
to answer the question: "If I were Osama bin Laden, where would I want to 
attack?" In the background, he plays the Beastie Boys.

For this, Gorman has become part of an expanding field of researchers whose 
work is coming under scrutiny for national security reasons. His story 
illustrates new ripples in the old tension between an open society and a 
secure society."
...

Ross
amicus@well.com
http://www.fuzzycloud.com

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Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 10:44:39 -0400
From: ERIC GUY <eguy@comcast.net>
Subject: Student dissertation to be suppressed in the name of
  "National Security"?
To: declan@well.com

Declan,

(pardon me if this has been sent twice - problems with my mail service)

I am sure you have seen the Washington Post article about Sean Gorman's
work on mapping the business and industrial infrastructure of the
American economy, but it hit me hard that information that is "publicly
available material he found on the Internet" should be suppressed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23689-2003Jul7.html

Some quotes:

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I'd be briefing
government officials and private-sector CEOs."

"Invariably, he said, they suggest his work be classified. 'Classify my
dissertation? Crap. Does this mean I have to redo my PhD?' he
said. 'They're worried about national security. I'm worried about
getting my degree.'"

"'He should turn it in to his professor, get his grade -- and then they
both should burn it,' said Richard Clarke, who until recently was the
White House cyberterrorism chief."

"When Gorman and Schintler presented their findings to government
officials, McCarthy recalled, they said, 'Pssh, let's scarf this up and
classify it.' "

"And when they presented them at a forum of chief information officers
of the country's largest financial services companies ... the
executives suggested that Gorman and Schintler not be allowed to leave
the building with the laptop."

"The university has imposed the security guidelines. It is trying to
build a cooperative relationship with the Department of Homeland
Security. Brenton Greene, director for infrastructure coordination at
DHS, described the project as 'a cookbook of how to exploit the
vulnerabilities of our nation's infrastructure.' He applauds Gorman's
work, as long as he refrains from publishing details. 'We would
recommend this not be openly distributed,' he said."

This is frightening stuff, to find out that the government / industrial
complex can come in and "suggest" that publicly available information
be suppressed is just another step towards a repressive state. Couple
this with what is happening with the DCMA and other such repressive
legislation and it seems that we are heading away from a free and open
society.




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