'Perfect Citizen' Program Places 'Sensors' Throughout Web

'PERFECT CITIZEN' PROGRAM PLACES 'SENSORS' THROUGHOUT WEB

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U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies

JULY 8, 2010
WALL ST JOURNAL
By SIOBHAN GORMAN

The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.

The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn't persistently monitor the whole system, these people said.

Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. recently won a classified contract for the initial phase of the surveillance effort valued at up to $100 million, said a person familiar with the project.

An NSA spokeswoman said the agency had no information to provide on the program. A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment.

Some industry and government officials familiar with the program see Perfect Citizen as an intrusion by the NSA into domestic affairs, while others say it is an important program to combat an emerging security threat that only the NSA is equipped to provide.

"The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government...feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security," said one internal Raytheon email, the text of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal. "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother."

Raytheon declined to comment on this email.

A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras. It's a logical extension of the work federal agencies have done in the past to protect physical attacks on critical infrastructure that could sabotage the government or key parts of the country, the official said.

U.S. intelligence officials have grown increasingly alarmed about what they believe to be Chinese and Russian surveillance of computer systems that control the electric grid and other U.S. infrastructure. Officials are unable to describe the full scope of the problem, however, because they have had limited ability to pull together all the private data.

Perfect Citizen will look at large, typically older computer control systems that were often designed without Internet connectivity or security in mind. Many of those systems—which run everything from subway systems to air-traffic control networks—have since been linked to the Internet, making them more efficient but also exposing them to cyber attack.

The goal is to close the "big, glaring holes" in the U.S.'s understanding of the nature of the cyber threat against its infrastructure, said one industry specialist familiar with the program. "We don't have a dedicated way to understand the problem."

The information gathered by Perfect Citizen could also have applications beyond the critical infrastructure sector, officials said, serving as a data bank that would also help companies and agencies who call upon NSA for help with investigations of cyber attacks, as Google did when it sustained a major attack late last year.

The U.S. government has for more than a decade claimed a national-security interest in privately owned critical infrastructure that, if attacked, could cause significant damage to the government or the economy. Initially, it established relationships with utility companies so it could, for instance, request that a power company seal a manhole that provides access to a key power line for a government agency.

With the growth in concern about cyber attacks, these relationships began to extend into the electronic arena, and the only U.S. agency equipped to manage electronic assessments of critical-infrastructure vulnerabilities is the NSA, government and industry officials said.

The NSA years ago began a small-scale effort to address this problem code-named April Strawberry, the military official said. The program researched vulnerabilities in computer networks running critical infrastructure and sought ways to close security holes.

That led to initial work on Perfect Citizen, which was a piecemeal effort to forge relationships with some companies, particularly energy companies, whose infrastructure is widely used across the country.

The classified program is now being expanded with funding from the multibillion-dollar Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, which started at the end of the Bush administration and has been continued by the Obama administration, officials said. With that infusion of money, the NSA is now seeking to map out intrusions into critical infrastructure across the country.

Because the program is still in the early stages, much remains to be worked out, such as which computer control systems will be monitored and how the data will be collected. NSA would likely start with the systems that have the most important security implications if attacked, such as electric, nuclear, and air-traffic-control systems, they said.

Intelligence officials have met with utilities' CEOs and those discussions convinced them of the gravity of the threat against U.S. infrastructure, an industry specialist said, but the CEOs concluded they needed better threat information and guidance on what to do in the event of a major cyber attack.

Some companies may agree to have the NSA put its own sensors on and others may ask for direction on what sensors to buy and come to an agreement about what data they will then share with the government, industry and government officials said.

While the government can't force companies to work with it, it can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate, particularly if the government already buys services from that company, officials said.

Raytheon, which has built up a large cyber-security practice through acquisitions in recent years, is expected to subcontract out some of the work to smaller specialty companies, according to a person familiar with the project.

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A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras. It's a logical extension of the work federal agencies have done in the past to protect physical attacks on critical infrastructure that could sabotage the government or key parts of the country, the official said.

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Frog in the pot....

Look, I don't like cameras being every God Damned Where now.

Weeee, we're all good little citizens now.

lol

I've always been a good citizen. I believe Good Citizens question authority and try to keep the government honest.

I've always been a good citizen. Now the government will simply watch my every move making sure i'm a good citizen. I mean, isn't this what I pay my taxes for? I want the government sticking it's nose in everywhere, after all, if I'm a good citizen and don't commit any crimes, I have nothing to hide.

Oh, that's right. You criminalize everything. Ayn Rand wrote:

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of law-breakers

We don't that many web cams in the US, yet, Peterle. UK is well known for their ability to snoop into private lives.

We don't want that here in the US.

The secret code in U.S. Cyber Command's logo

http://watchermeetup.50.forumer.com/...ost_target.gifby Smilodon » July 7th, 2010, 4:48 pm
9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a

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The newly formed U.S. Cyber Command is supposed to centralize and focus the military's ability to wage war over the Internet, but so far it's basically famous for brainteasers. The command's fancy logo contains a super-secret code in its inner gold ring: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a. Though some people noticed the code late last month, Wired's Threat Level blog picked it up Wednesday morning and announced a contest, with a free T-shirt (or a ticket to the International Spy Museum) going to the first reader to crack the code.

Trouble is, no one knows for sure yet precisely what the 32-character code means. Or at least no one at Cyber Command appears to know. Lt. Cmdr. Steve Curry, a spokesman, says "it's definitely the mission statement" of Cyber Command. "What part of the mission statement: That's what I'm waiting to find out on from the people who designed it."

Indeed, the heraldry notes accompanying the logo — i.e., explanations of what the symbols mean — say it contains a "computer code that ties the command back to the early days of computer networking; USCYBERCOM's mission statement is encrypted within this code." Curry suspects that the designers used a cryptographic algorithm called an MD5 hash to transform the mission statement into the string of characters, but he doesn't know whether they took choice bits or the whole statement, which reads:

USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

We tried encrypting that entire statement using an MD5 hash generator, and we didn't get a match to the logo code. So it looks like just a portion of the statement has been encoded. Eventually someone will figure out which portion, and win a T-shirt from Wired — at which point the CIA will laugh at the whole episode, because it still has Kryptos, an encrypted sculpture commissioned on the grounds of its Langley headquarters.

The code displayed on Kryptos hasn't been fully solved in 20 years and contains one of the world's most elusive cryptographic puzzles.

Nice try, Cyber Command!

As Freedom Sunsets into Perpetual Night

03:29 by Administrator. Filed under: Whatever

by John Galt
July 8, 2010

The dramatic headline on the Drudge Report tonight might seem logical and innocent to the uninitiated:

'PERFECT CITIZEN' PROGRAM PLACES 'SENSORS' THROUGHOUT WEB

The truth behind the headline though is that our nation has been bleeding its freedoms away one bureaucratic paper cut at a time. The idea is that the NSA wishes to use the logical approach of government mandated monitoring of the flow of data to “protect” critical utility infrastructure and corporations from external attack. Unfortunately, the mentality of those in charge of the operation is best reflected in this quote from an “unnamed” military official from the Wall Street Journal report:

A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras.

Really unnamed U.S. military official? I don’t hold my credit card number up to traffic cameras. My spending habits and purchases, bills and personal pictures are not visible to the traffic camera. My personal emails are not visible to the traffic camera. My communications with my family are not visible on the traffic camera. If I wish to engage in lawful dissent the traffic camera does not pass judgment or use it as a perverted form of evidence against me in a trial. Apparently the attitude is that the real threat to America is not the cleansing sunlight of freedom, the ultimate disinfectant to prevent the disease of totalitarianism, but instead the free thoughts and actions of the United States citizen. This thought from above should disturb every patriotic American and chill them to the bone.

The story continues though, with further ideas being thrown against the wall, which will ultimately open Pandora’s Box and lead to the monitoring of not just “critical infrastructure” but the individuals who think they are living their lives as normal Americans, unaware that they are already being monitored but now able to put the friendly name of ‘Perfect Citizen’ as the software program which sponges up their activities on the internet and probably lift it off of their hard drives if you “trip” one of their sensors. This portion of the story is most disconcerting:

Some companies may agree to have the NSA put its own sensors on and others may ask for direction on what sensors to buy and come to an agreement about what data they will then share with the government, industry and government officials said.

While the government can’t force companies to work with it, it can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate, particularly if the government already buys services from that company, officials said.

So who is going to be the determining agency (or agencies) that decide what data is of a critical nature and what is not? When do incentives become threats, such as if you do not install this software and work with us, we’ll seize your company and arrest the officers of the corporation?

Does the risk of a contagious disease give the CDC or United States Military
Medical Command a right to your personal data from your doctors based on the new centralized data collection system ordered in the Health Care bill passed by the Obama administration? Does the IRS have the right to all personal AND financial data now via this system if you are determined to be a security risk because you fall behind in paying your taxes or buy more widgets from eBay or bullets from Cheaper Than Dirt.com than the national average? What oversight will we see to protect your freedoms and rights under the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution, or does that damned piece of paper even matter now?

The risks of what this type of program entails where “sensors” are implanted throughout the web when you have a regime hell bent on instituting FCC oversight over broadcast outlets and the internet are positively horrific. Imagine that Cass Sunstein, the Regulatory Czar who answers to no authority but the President, determines that a political opposition group or broadcaster should be deemed a national security threat. What is to prevent the ‘Perfect Citizen’ from being used for data mining purposes to intimidate and threaten the group forcing them to change their opinions or causing members to flee under the iron boot on their throats?

This is a very dangerous precedent being proposed and despite the rhetoric we are about to hear, this is no traffic camera at a busy intersection; this is an attempt to create and maintain order by completing the process of an end run around the Constitution to usurp the rights of the people in the name of security. Instead of quoting our Founding Fathers and their rather poignant thoughts on this subject, I thought I would quote an unidentified child which seems quite pertinent to the discussion:

We are the voice of the new generation. We are the voice of the new people. The destructive ways of the past are gone. We will replace them with our vision of the future. The Party will lead us to the new age. There have been those who have tried to stop the new age. They are the corrupt reminder of the past. They have tried to confuse us with the idea that the old America was a good country. We know that lie. History teaches us that lie. We are grateful to our brothers who saved the world from destruction, and we can now join them in a world of socialist brotherhood. Everyone will go to school, everyone will have a job, everyone will be equal. No one will exploit or be exploited, and all those who oppose this wonderful vision will be crushed.

The child that said these words was part of the fictional ABC television mini-series Amerika in the late 1980′s. Only the word “Soviet” was removed from this sentence which was before the word “brothers” and should give one pause as the ideals of that tyranny have become relevant again today.

Re-read the sentence and think about the numerous chants, programs, oaths, and songs sung in praise of this President and the ideals of the radical left becoming reality in our nation now. Then consider the powerful infrastructure being aligned against your freedoms while you attempt to survive the economic and political disaster our nation is mired in.

The one sentence from the article from an internal Raytheon email which validates my fears says it all:

“Perfect Citizen is Big Brother.”

May God let us see a sunrise again in our lifetime as freedom sunsets into the darkness of perpetual night.

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So Captain Zero has his All seeing Eye on everything and has a "kill switch" to shut the internet down if the serfs get agitated.

Weeee, what a wonderful world we live in.

The point is NOT whether or not we have something hide.

It honestly isn't ANYONE'S business where I walk, where I go, where I drive, what I buy, what I sell, who I visit or who visits me.

It has NOTHING to do with if I have something to hide. I don't. Obviously I don't. In fact many times I have been called down for posting my name, and information on the internet.

Some of you might remember a few years back when the military told me I had to remove my personal web pages from Anomalies, and remove my biography, remove my own survival web page.

I asked "Why".

"We are trying to protect you and your family"

I asked, "From whom?"

They gave me some run around about my clearance, and such. It comes down to this, yes I could be a target. I'm the worst KIND of target.

I walk around with a weapon, I have NO intention of "selling out my country" like so many politicians are doing now, I BELIEVE in America. I believe in FREEDOM and I BELIEVE I can PROTECT MY OWN ASS.

I take personal responsibility in myself and seeing to the safety of my family. I told them that unless they could show me directive, then to pound sand.

To this day, they leave me alone.

And they can still pound sand.

The last picture is of an uninterruptible power supply(UPS).

As far a s control, we are all subject to the power of government, the issues is how far do we let others dictate our behavior?

I don't think we should be allowing anyone to dictate our behavior. Period.

If you, of course, can't act civilized and not riot, rob, rape, murder... then to hell with you, but living my day to day life, just leave me the hell alone. ALL alone.

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Originally Posted by Rick Donaldson

I don't think we should be allowing anyone to dictate our behavior. Period.

If you, of course, can't act civilized and not riot, rob, rape, murder... then to hell with you, but living my day to day life, just leave me the hell alone. ALL alone.

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The point is, civilized is codified.

You are behaving as dictated now. Civilized behavior has been dictated to you your whole life. You don't do 100mph on your local street, you don't spit on the sidewalk, etc. Social norms are behaviors that you agree to. On a deserted island they wouldn't apply.

There are more of these types of things.

Once these constructs are agreed to as a framework, then we get into optional things. If I chose to go to the store 12 times a day, that's my business. At some point, expect some nanny state douchbag to figure out how to control your movements ostensibly to combat "the Global XXXXX crisis" when in reality it's always about control. 12 visits will turn into once a week maximums. This is where government needs to go away and leave us alone. It won't though as the impulse to control others is very strong in some people and they just can't help but ram their @#$% up your @#$ and put their hand in your wallet while they're doing it.