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For the first time in twenty years, the Justice Department is finally free to campaign for the encryption access bill it has always wanted.  Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the Lawful Access To Encrypted Data Act. (Ars Technica, Press Release) As Nick…

 

The next trade war will be over transatlantic data flows, and it will make the fight with China look like a picnic. That’s the subject of this episode’s interview. The European Court of Justice is poised to go nuclear – to cut off US companies’ access to European customer data unless the US lets European courts and data protection agencies refashion its intelligence capabilities according to standards no European government has ever been required to meet. It is Europe in full neocolonial mode, but it has sailed below the radar, disguised as an abstruse European legal fight. Maury Shenk and I interview Peter Swire on the Schrems cases that look nearly certain to provoke a transatlantic trade and intelligence crisis. Actually, Maury interviews Peter, and I throw bombs into the conversation. But if ever there were a cyberlaw topic that deserves more bomb-throwing, this is it.…

Continue Reading Episode 299: The European Court of Justice Is About to Kick Off a Massive US-EU Trade War

There’s a fine line between legislation addressing deepfakes and legislation that is itself a deep fake. Nate Jones reports on the only federal legislation addressing the problem so far. I claim that it is well short of a serious regulatory effort – and pretty close to a fake law.

In contrast, India seems serious about imposing liability on companies whose unbreakable end-to-end crypto causes harm, at least to judge from the howls of the usual defenders of such crypto. David Kris explains how the law will work. I ask why Silicon Valley gets to impose the externalities of encryption-facilitated crime on society without consequence when we’d never allow tech companies to say that society should pick up the tab for their pollution because their products are so cool. In related news, the FBI may be turning the Pensacola military terrorism attack into a slow-motion replay of the San Bernardino fight with Apple, this time with more top cover.…

Continue Reading Episode 295: The line between deepfake legislation and deeply fake legislation

Today’s episode opens with a truly disturbing bit of neocolonial judicial lawmaking from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The CJEU ruled that an Austrian court can order Facebook to take down statements about an Austrian politician. Called an “oaf” and a “fascist,” the politician more or less proved the truth of the accusations by suing to keep that and similar statements off Facebook worldwide. Trying to find allies for my proposal to adopt blocking legislation to protect the First Amendment from foreign government interference, I argue that President Trump should support such a law. After all, if he were ever to insult a European politician on Twitter, this ruling could lead to litigation that takes his Twitter account off the air. True, he could criticize the judges responsible for the judgment as “French” or “German” without upsetting CNN, but that would be cold comfort. At last, a legislative and international agenda for the Age of Trump!…

Continue Reading Episode 281: Can the European Union order Twitter to silence President Trump?

Episode 178: The Evil Dolphin Episode

The Cyberlaw Podcast kicks off a series exploring section 702 – the half-US/half-foreign collection program that has proven effective against terrorists while also proving controversial with civil liberties groups.  With the program due to expire on December 31, we’ll examine the surveillance controversies spawned by the program. Today, we…

Episode 159: Interview with Nicholas Weaver

Our guest interview is with Nick Weaver, of Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute.  It covers the latest dumps of hacker tools, the vulnerability equities process, the so-bad-you-want-to-cover-your-eyes story of Juniper and the Dual_EC hacks, and ends with a tour of recent computer security disasters, from the capture of…

Are Russian hacker-spies a bunch of lethargic government drones more interested in smash-and-grabs than stealth?  That’s one of the questions we pose to Mikko Hypponen in episode 86 (right after we ask about how to pronounce his name; turns out, that’s harder than you think).  Mikko is the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure and a long-time expert in computer security who has spoken and consulted around the world for over 20 years.  His company recently published a lengthy paper on Russian government cyberspies, which F-Secure calls “the Dukes.”  Mikko describes the Dukes’ targets and tactics, including a remarkably indiscriminate attack on a Tor exit node.  I press him on whether attribution is really getting better, and on whether F-Secure’s paper eases or heightens concerns about Kaspersky’s ties to Russian intelligence.
Continue Reading Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast – Interview with Mikko Hypponen

Cyberlaw negotiations are the theme of episode 82, as the US and China strike a potentially significant agreement on commercial cyberespionage and Europeans focus on tearing up agreements with the US and intruding on US sovereignty.

Our guest for the episode is Jim Lewis, a senior fellow and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Most importantly, Jim is one of the most deeply informed and insightful commentators on China and cybersecurity.  He offers new perspectives on the Obama-Xi summit and what it means for cyberespionage.
Continue Reading Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast – Interview with Jim Lewis