8/6/2019 In-Q-Tel's Daniel Geer Explains Dangers of "Cyber-Industrial Complex". Congress Needs to Listen. Released July 31,

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ClearText

88 COPUBLISHED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER AND RELIABILITY SOCIETIES 1540-7993/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE JULY/AUGUST 2011

(The warrant-less wiretap imbro-

glio proved by demonstration that

the bigger the ISP, the less it can re-

sist orcible deputization.)

Some o it is the penumbra o

black research budgets, ironically

cheered on by a security research

community that seems hell-bent on calling every major hack

not all that advanced, probably

meaning I could do it better.

(Fiteenth century map makers

did the same thing, promising El

Dorado i only this or that king

would just send in some proes-

sionals. Like them.)

But more than any o that, it is

a complex, and, as we know, com-

plex systems have notable side e-

ects. The consumerization ocomputing, including such pro-

grams as bring your own com-

puter to work, so obliterates the

enterprise data perimeter that the

resulting threat can only be coun-

tered by instrumented surveillance

at the system-call level. The gener-

al-purpose computer as a consum-

er durable is dead; aggregate 2010

Q4 shipments o smartphones

proved it. Freedom to tinker? Ir-

relevant, not to mention near-termnonexistent. What youre buying,

which is to say what you (the oce

worker) are capitalizing or your

employer, is an all-singing, all-

dancing display device connected

to the walled garden o some well-

deputized ISP, now with app stores

and God-knows-where storage,

but no compilers.

As Eisenhower said, dictators

always use security as an ex-

cuse or enlarging their domain,

New Deal, but he circumscribed

it within a balanced budget. He

birthed the containment policy

that ultimately deeated Soviet

Communism, yet he also initiated

the rst nuclear test ban. He con-

structed his unequaled presiden-

tial arewell address as a reproo,

using a neologism that stuck: the

military-industrial complex.Were about to have something

rather more potent. Like some

volcanic archipelago rising rom

the oceans surace, inormation

security is ast becoming a cyber-

industrial complex. The signs are

everywhere.

Some o it is laughable, such

as a Congressional proposal to

Do Not Track, which, as a mat-

ter o logic, cant work without

strong authentication, setting thestage or some new bureaucrat to

declare, We had to destroy ano-

nymity in order to save it.

Some o it is brazenly hege-

monist, exemplied by nothing

so much as the tail that is the en-

tertainment industry wagging the

dogs o every sel-styled progres-

sive government up to and in-

cluding seeking the authority to

break down digital doors on sus-

picion alone.Some o it is Orwellian, such

as the various eorts o various

nation states to control not what

search engines nd but what they

must then be orbidden to share.

How soon do you suppose it is

beore spidering the Web requires

a government license, perhaps

one auctioned o the way radio

bandwidth is auctionedor vast

sums, yet always subject to seizureshould the search engine licensee

displease its government licensor?

Some o it toys with address-

ability itsel, as i a predictable,

coherent name structure were just

another currency. (That one is no

prediction, ICANN having now

devolved into nothing but a pro-

tection racket.)

Some o it reverses the idea o

innocence until guilt is proven,

which is precisely what the man-dated retention o data tries to

doprove a negative, something

science has told us cant be done

absent perect knowledge.

Some o it is exactly what the

opening quote rom Eisenhower

inviteda prisoners comort

only this time the jailer will be the

ISP, deputized against its will to

police the cyber health o all users

on the ISPs networks, even i those

users machines are better managedater some bot herder pwns them.

Eisenhower, Supreme Commander o the Allied

Expeditionary Forces in World War II, then

university president, and ultimately American

president, could parse the consequents o

orce. He made no move against Franklin D. Roosevelts

Daniel e.

Geer Jr.

In-Q-Tel

Eisenhower Revisited

I all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. Theyll have enough to eat, a bed, and a roo over their

heads. But i an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his

neck to any dictatorial government. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 8 December 1949

cont. on p. 87

8/6/2019 In-Q-Tel's Daniel Geer Explains Dangers of "Cyber-Industrial Complex". Congress Needs to Listen. Released July 31,

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