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[The Great Cummupence... And it is the state that is bad, not the
intimate relations between private corporations and the USG... what
implications for MS?]<br>
<h1 class="entry-title">Government Spying on Americans … and then
Giving Info to Giant Corporations</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"> <span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted
on</span> <a
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/government-spying-on-americans-and-then-giving-info-to-giant-corporations.html"
title="12:10 am" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">June
11, 2013</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span
class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/author/washingtonsblog"
title="View all posts by WashingtonsBlog">WashingtonsBlog</a></span>
</div>
<h3 style="color: #000099;">Big Banks and Other Corporate Bigwigs
Benefit from Illegal Spying</h3>
<p>You’ve heard that the government spies on all Americans.</p>
<p>But you might not know that the government shares some of that
information with big corporations.</p>
<p>In addition, Reuters <a target="_blank" title="reported"
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/26/us-cybersecurity-banks-idUSTRE79P5E020111026">reported</a>
in 2011 that the NSA shares intelligence with Wall Street banks in
the name of “battling hackers.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S.
military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with
intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of
financial sabotage.The assistance from the agency that conducts
electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American
banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S.
military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber
attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security
experts and defense industry executives.</p>
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also warned banks of
particular threats amid concerns that hackers could potentially
exploit security vulnerabilities to wreak havoc across global
markets and cause economic mayhem.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>NSA Director Keith Alexander, who runs the U.S. military’s
cyber operations, told Reuters the agency is currently talking
to financial firms about sharing electronic information on
malicious software, possibly by expanding a pilot program
through which <strong>it offers similar data to the defense
industry</strong>.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>NSA, which has long been charged with protecting classified
government networks from attack, is already working with Nasdaq
to beef up its defenses after hackers infiltrated its computer
systems last year and installed malicious software that allowed
them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The NSA’s work with Wall Street marks a milestone in the
agency’s efforts to <strong>make its cyber intelligence
available more broadly to the private sector</strong>.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Greater cooperation with industry became possible after a deal
reached a year ago between the Pentagon and the Department of
Homeland Security, <strong>allowing NSA to provide cyber
expertise to</strong> other government agencies and <strong>certain
private companies</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In March, PC Magazine <a target="_blank" title="noted"
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417197,00.asp">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Right now, the ability to share real-time information is
complicated and there are legal barriers. We have to overcome
that,” Gen Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security
Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said during a
Thursday appearance at Georgia Tech’s Cyber Security Symposium.</p>
<p>[Alexander has been pushing for the anti-privacy Internet bill
known as "<a target="_blank" title="CISPA"
href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/us-house-representatives-shamefully-passes-cispa-internet-freedom-advocates">CISPA</a>"
to be passed.] “It allows the government to start working with
industry and … discuss with each of these sector about the best
approach,” he said.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>CISPA would allow the NSA to more openly share data with
corporations in the name of protecting against “cyber threats.”
But that phrase is too squisy. As the Electronic Frontier
Foundation <a target="_blank" title="notes:"
href="https://www.eff.org/cybersecurity-bill-faq#agencies">notes:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>A “cybersecurity purpose” only means that a company has to
think that a user is trying to harm its network. What does that
mean, exactly? The definition is broad and vague. The definition
allows purposes such as guarding against “improper” information
modification, ensuring “timely” access to information or
“preserving authorized restrictions on
access…protecting…proprietary information” (i.e. DRM).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moreover, as the ACLU <a title="notes"
href="http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/privacy/fusioncenter_20071212.pdf"
target="_blank">notes</a>, “Fusion Centers” – a hybrid of
military, intelligence agency, police and private corporations set
up in centers <a title="throughout the country"
href="http://www.aclu.org/node/20415/" target="_blank">throughout
the country</a>, and run by the Department of Justice and
Department of Homeland Security – allow big businesses like Boeing
to get access to classified information which gives them an <em>unfair
advantage</em> over smaller competitors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Participation in fusion centers might give Boeing access to the
trade secrets or security vulnerabilities of competing
companies, or might give it an advantage in competing for
government contracts. Expecting a Boeing analyst to distinguish
between information that represents a security risk to Boeing
and information that represents a business risk may be too much
to ask.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A 2008 Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office <a
title="review"
href="http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_pia_ia_slrfci.pdf"
target="_blank">review</a> of fusion centers concluded that they
presented risks to privacy because of ambiguous lines of
authority, rules and oversight, the participation of the military
and <em><strong>private sector</strong></em>, data mining,
excessive secrecy, inaccurate or incomplete information and the
dangers of mission creep.</p>
<p>The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations <a
target="_blank" title="found"
href="http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14187433-homeland-security-fusion-centers-spy-on-citizens-produce-shoddy-work-report-says?lite">found</a>
in 2012 that fusion centers spy on citizens, produce ‘shoddy’ work
unrelated to terrorism or real threats:</p>
<div>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Subcommittee investigation found that DHS-assigned
detailees to the fusion centers forwarded ‘intelligence’ of
uneven quality – oftentimes shoddy, rarely timely, sometimes
endangering citizens’ civil liberties and Privacy Act
protections, occasionally taken from already-published public
sources, and <strong>more often than not unrelated to
terrorism</strong>.”</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p>Under the FBI’s Infraguard program, businesses sometimes receive
intel even <a title="before elected officials"
href="http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/3-infragard-the-fbi-deputizes-business/"
target="_blank"><em>before</em> elected officials</a>.</p>
<p>Law enforcement agencies spy on protesters and then <a
title="share the info – at taxpayer expense"
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/18/wall-street-firms-spy-on-protestors-in-tax-funded-center/"
target="_blank">share the info – at taxpayer expense</a> – with
the giant Wall Street banks</p>
<p>And a security expert says that all Occupy Wall Street protesters
had their cellphone information <a target="_blank" title="logged
by the government"
href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/06/security_expert_all_occupiers_phones_were_logged/">logged
by the government</a>.</p>
<p>Alternet <a target="_blank" title="notes"
href="http://www.alternet.org/how-our-massive-homeland-security-apparatus-does-bidding-big-banks">notes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ironically, records indicate that corporate entities engaged in
such public-private intelligence sharing partnerships were often
the very same corporate entities criticized, and protested
against, by the Occupy Wall Street movement as having undue
influence in the functions of public government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In essence, big banks and giant corporations are seen as being
part of <a target="_blank" title="“critical infrastructure” and
“key resources"
href="http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp_srtltt_guide.pdf">“critical
infrastructure” and “key resources</a>” … so the government
protects them. That creates a dynamic where the government will
do quite a bit to protect the big boys against any real or
imagined threats … whether from activists or even smaller
competitors. (Remember that the government has completely <a
title="propped up the big banks"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/virtually-all-of-the-big-banks-profits-come-from-taxpayer-bailouts-and-subsidies.html">propped
up the big banks</a>, even though <a title="they went bankrupt
due to stupid gambles"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/01/12-of-the-13-big-banks-went-bust-and-the-government-lied-when-it-said-it-only-bailed-out-healthy-banks.html">they
went bankrupt due to stupid gambles</a>.)</p>
<p>And given that some <a target="_blank" title="millions of
private contractors"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/secret-history-nsa-contractors/story?id=19366914&singlePage=true#.UbZz79h32Sp">millions
of private contractors</a> have clearance to view information
gathered by spy agencies, and that information gained by the NSA
by spying on Americans is being shared with agencies in <a
target="_blank" title="other countries"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/07/uk-gathering-secret-intelligence-nsa-prism">other
countries</a>, at least some of the confidential information is
undoubtedly leaking into private hands <em>even without</em> the
government’s knowledge or consent.</p>
<p>As the ACLU <a target="_blank" title="noted"
href="http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/surveillance_report.pdf">noted</a>
in 2004:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a long and unfortunate history of cooperation between
government security agencies and powerful corporations to
deprive individuals of their privacy and other civil liberties,
and any program that institutionalizes close, secretive ties
between such organizations raises serious questions about the
scope of its activities, now and in the future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, the government has been affirmatively helping the big
banks, giant oil companies and other large corporations <a
title="cover up fraud"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/04/japans-nuclear-melt-down-economic.html">cover
up fraud</a> and to go after critics. For example, Business
Week <a target="_blank" title="reported "
href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060615163032/http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily">reported
</a>on May 23, 2006:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar,
John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national
security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual
accounting and securities-disclosure obligations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Reuters <a title="notes"
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60N1S220100124"
target="_blank">noted</a> in 2010:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York
Federal Reserve’s bid to keep secret many of the details of the
American International Group bailout like a request to protect
matters of national security, according to emails obtained by
Reuters.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wired <a title="described"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/foia-filtered/"
target="_blank">reported</a> the same year:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The DHS issued a directive to employees in July 2009 requiring
a wide range of public records requests to pass through
political appointees for vetting. These included any requests
dealing with a “controversial or sensitive subject” or
pertaining to meetings involving <strong>prominent business
leaders</strong> and elected officials. Requests from
lawmakers, journalists, and activist and watchdog groups were
also placed under this scrutiny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an effort to protect Bank of America from the threatened
Wikileaks expose of wrongdoing – <a title="the Department of
Justice told Bank of America"
href="http://dailybail.com/home/how-attorney-general-eric-holder-colluded-with-bank-of-ameri.html"
target="_blank">the Department of Justice told Bank of America</a>
to a hire a specific hardball-playing law firm to assemble a team
to take down WikiLeaks (and see <a title="this"
href="http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/hunton_williams_wikileaks_chamber/"
target="_blank">this</a>)</p>
<p>The government and big banks actually <a title="coordinated on
the violent crackdown"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/government-and-big-banks-joined-forces-to-violently-crush-peaceful-protests.html">coordinated
on the violent crackdown</a> of the anti-big bank Occupy
protest.</p>
<p>The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people
from learning what pollutants are in their own community, in order
to protect the fracking, coal and other polluting industries. See
<a target="_blank" title="this"
href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/02/documentary-filmmaker-josh-fox-arrested-at-fracking-hearing">this</a>,
<a title="this"
href="http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/breaking_in_private_email_pas_homeland_security_chief_pledges_support_to_gas_drillers_warns_against_groups_fomenting_dissent.html"
target="_blank">this</a>, <a title="this"
href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/09/post_122.html"
target="_blank">this</a>, <a title="this"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/coal-ash-spills-too-dange_n_214739.html"
target="_blank">this</a> and <a title="this"
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=bushs_secret_government"
target="_blank">this</a>.</p>
<p>Investigating factory farming can get one <a title="investigates
factory farming"
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-fbi-tracking-animal-videotapers-as-terrorists-20111229,0,5919114.story"
target="_blank">labeled a terrorist</a>.</p>
<p>Infringing the copyright of a big corporation may also get
labeled as a terrorist … and a swat team may be deployed to your
house. See <a title="this"
href="http://news.cnet.com/Terrorist-link-to-copyright-piracy-alleged/2100-1028_3-5722835.html"
target="_blank">this</a>, <a title="this"
href="http://techliberation.com/2007/01/17/swat-teams-enforcing-copyright/"
target="_blank">this</a>, <a title="this"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_invocations_of_the_USA_PATRIOT_Act#Investigating_copyright_infringement"
target="_blank">this</a> and <a title="this"
href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100129/0630057974.shtml"
target="_blank">this</a>. As the executive director of the
Information Society Project at Yale Law School <a title="notes"
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/enough-already-the-sopa-debate-ignores-how-much-copyright-protection-we-already-have/252742/#bio"
target="_blank">notes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This administration … publishes a newsletter about its efforts
with language that compares copyright infringement to terrorism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short, <a title="The “National Security” Apparatus Has Been
Hijacked to Serve the Needs of Big Business →"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/09/the-national-security-apparatus-has-been-hijacked-to-serve-the-needs-of-big-business.html"
rel="next">the “national security” apparatus has been hijacked
to serve the needs of big business</a></p>
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