Cyber Scene #2

	Cyber Scene #2

This addition to the Newsletter is intended to provide an informative, timely backdrop of events, thinking, and developments that feed into technological advancement of SoS Cybersecurity collaboration and extend its outreach.

Cybersecurity:  Raising the Bar

Legal perspectives on overarching academic, Intelligence Community, private sector industry, and Congressional concerns

(1) The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security continues its work begun in 1962 on educating the Bar and the public on rule of law issues to preserve the freedoms of democracy and national security. To that effect, the Cybersecurity Working Group was founded in 2012, and by the end of 2013, had compiled, for “educational and informational purposes” — (many legal disclaimers here!) “The Playbook for Cyber Events” and “The ABA Cybersecurity Handbook.” The working group continues, with support from its Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, to convene and explore contemporary as well as future legal aspects of cybersecurity concerns and be poised, a priori, for action. Read more at: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_services/law_national_security.html and http://www.americanbar.org/groups/leadership/office_of_the_president/cybersecurity.html. 

Three events in Washington D.C. are slated for June–November 2016 to advance this forum’s discussion and understanding. They are:

1. 8 June 2016, NYU in Washington D.C. The Honorable James E. Baker, Chief Judge (ret.), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and Chair, ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security will introduce a forum including the authors Zachary Goldman and Samuel Rascoff to discuss their book, Global Intelligence Oversight that addresses cybersecurity among related topics. ABA National Security Chair Harvey Rishikof will moderate.
   See: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/law_national_security/book-talk-june-8-flyer.pdf
    
2. 24-25 August 2016, 11th Annual Homeland Security Law Institute, Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C.
   See: http://shop.americanbar.org/ebus/ABAEventsCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?productId=240666089
    
3. 14-15 November 2016, The 26th Annual Review of the Field of National Security Law, Washington D.C.
   See: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_services/law_national_security.html
    

(2) Relatedly, both formal publications (e.g., law reviews) and informal blogs are addressing legal cybersecurity issues on today’s table. The Harvard National Security Journal (http://harvardnsj.org/2016/02/volume-7-1/) is a law-student/think tank joint venture affiliated with the Harvard Law School - Brookings Project on Law and Security capturing both broad governmental perspectives (e.g., the Assistant Attorney General for National Security address to Harvard Law on future options) and animated blog-based exchanges. One such blog post, Susan Landau's “Don't Panic” from Harvard’s Berkman Center, posited that growth of strong encryption would not significantly hinder intelligence or law enforcement collection. This has launched an even more academic, legal, and Intelligence Community and Congressional spirited response over the last 2 weeks (through 21 May to date), including the Director of National Intelligence, Jim Clapper, who countered in a letter to Senator Wyden that Landau’s Berkman Center report was wrong, and that “the impediments to our efforts to protect the nation...cannot be fully mitigated by alternative means.” This debate continues to spawn a host of thoughtful legal opinions—law professors, students, the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, Heritage Foundation, Brookings and Stanford’s Hoover Institutions, as well as present homeland security consultants and present and former senior DHS and IC officials. See https://www.lawfareblog.com/ic-thinks-harvard-wrong-about-encryption for a sampling and useful links.

(ID#: 16-11359)