Flogging redux

Some time ago (almost 2 months to the day), I put up a post that described my visceral anger at a democratic majority handing over changes to the FISA statutes. This made the little veins in head and neck throb and pulse rather alarmingly.

Not much better now.

Well anyway, several very smart and well informed individuals put together an informed version of much the same thing. From the abstract:

The civil-liberties concern is whether the new law puts Americans at risk of spurious -- and invasive -- surveillance by their own government. The security concern is whether the new law puts Americans at risk of illegitimate surveillance by others. We focus on security. How will the collection system determine that communications have one end outside the United States? How will the surveillance be secured? We examine the risks and put forth recommendations to address them.

The very short version looks like:

We see three serious security risks that have not been adequately addressed (or perhaps not even addressed at all): the danger that the system can be exploited by unauthorized users, the danger of criminal misuse by a trusted insider, and the danger of misuse by the U.S. government. Our recommendations are based on these concern.

It is currently posted as a draft, but is quite an enjoyable read. Much of what I wanted to originally express is written here, but without all the grandstanding and salty language.

Must go - there is homework to finish ...