[iwar] [fc:Liberte,.Egalite.....E-Security?]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-27 15:27:21


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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:27:21 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Liberte,.Egalite.....E-Security?]
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Liberte, Egalite ... E-Security?
By Dermot McGrath 

2:00 a.m. Sep. 27, 2001 PDT           
 
PARIS -- At any other time, a gathering of privacy mavens, policy-makers
and legal experts in Paris might make for an interesting if laidback
discussion on the ethical niceties of balancing national security and
personal privacy. 

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States, such
debates have taken on an intensity and urgency that two weeks and 3,500
miles of ocean cannot diminish. 

French President Jacques Chirac set the tone for delegates at the 23rd
International Conference of Data Protection Commissioners, telling them
to "respect freedom of thought, but don't let the Internet become the
tool of the enemies of liberty and human dignity."
  
He also called for international cooperation to stamp out cybercrime and
implement a transnational system of law for dealing with abuse. 

"Taking into account the global dimension of the Internet, it is
essential to put in place an efficient and progressive universal legal
framework which clearly defines infractions and proposes procedures for
penalizing them," he said. 

But while the conference themes encompassed a wide range of topics such
as privacy in the workplace, the use of biometric technology, racial
profiling, e-democracy and CCTV, the thoughts of participants almost
invariably returned to the events of Sept.  11. 

"The recent terrorist attacks in the U.S.  serve as a reminder that
cybercriminality is now a reality that we have to deal with.  The
keyboard is a weapon that we must never underestimate again," said
Raymond Forni, president of the French national assembly. 

Michel Gentot, president of the French National Data Processing and
Liberties Commission (CNIL), an independent supervisory watchdog, warned
authorities against "thoughtless and hasty" measures that could
undermine civil liberties. 

"The circumstances, in the wake of these terrorist attacks, oblige us to
never abandon the search for the right balance between security and
privacy," Gentot said.  "Without a doubt, our responsibility in this
matter has never been so crucial as it is now."

A number of participants expressed concern about how the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon could pave the way for excessively
draconian legislation in other European countries and the European
Parliament. 

Marco Cappato, a member of the European Parliament committee for
citizensą freedoms and rights, said that the balance between security
and privacy had become dangerously skewed after the attacks. 

"If we allow ourselves to become trapped by this debate, a new balance
will be struck to the detriment of freedom, because now everybody is
talking about security," he said.  Earlier this month, members of the
European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution calling on member
states to provide all European citizens with the same guarantees on the
protection of privacy and confidentiality of correspondence. 

Cappato said that privacy advocates, politicians and civil libertarians
had to stage a counter-offensive to ensure that basic democratic
principles were not trampled in the rush to legislate against
cybercriminals and terrorists. 

Robert Lack, group leader for security in the London borough of Newham,
offered a slightly different slant on the privacy/security debate. 

In 1997, Newham became one of the first districts in Britain to install
widespread closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems as an anti-crime
measure, despite widespread protests from privacy groups. 

The system also uses controversial facial recognition technology to scan
passersby and compare their images with databases of known criminals -­
a scheme that earned Newham Council the dubious honor of a Big Brother
award from Privacy International in 1998. 

Lack, however, is unrepentant. 

Crime in Newham has fallen by over 35 percent in successive years, he
says, and he claims that residents agree that the ends more than justify
the means. 

"This is not a question of Big Brother watching you," Lack said.  "It's
more a case of a local authority acting as the friendly uncle or aunt
and looking after your interests.  If the criminal minority sees us as
Big Brother, so be it.  We are making Newham safer for the other 249,900
who live in the area.  They accept our efforts on their behalf."


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