Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Submission Preview

Link to Story

New US Bill Aims to Protect Researchers Who Disclose Govt Backdoors

Accepted submission by upstart at 2020-03-09 14:23:00
News

████ # This file was generated bot-o-matically! Edit at your own risk. ████

New US Bill Aims to Protect Researchers who Disclose Govt Backdoors [bleepingcomputer.com]:

New legislation has been introduced that amends the Espionage Act of 1917 to protect journalists, whistleblowers, and security researchers who discover and disclose classified government information.

The goal of the new legislation is to amend the Espionage Act of 1917 so it cannot be used to target reporters, whistleblowers, and security researchers who discover and publish classified government secrets.

Concerned that the current laws are being used for partisan prosecution, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D - California) introduced the new legislation to Congress on March 5th, 2020 and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D - Oregon) will soon introduce it to the Senate.

"My bill with Senator Wyden will protect journalists from being prosecuted under the Espionage Act and make it easier for members of Congress, as well as federal agencies, to conduct proper oversight over any privacy abuses. Our nation’s strength rests on the freedom of the press, transparency, and a functioning system of checks and balances. This bill is a step toward ensuring those same principles apply to intelligence gathering and surveillance operations," said Rep. Ro Khanna [house.gov].

"This bill ensures only personnel with security clearances can be prosecuted for improperly revealing classified information," Senator Wyden stated [senate.gov].

This new legislation titled 'Espionage Act Reform Act of 2020’ ensures:

  • Journalists who solicit, obtain, or publish government secrets are safe from prosecution.
  • Every member of Congress is equally able to receive classified information, specifically from whistleblowers. Current law criminalizes the disclosure of classified information related to signals intelligence to any member of Congress, unless it is in response to a “lawful demand” from a committee. This change puts members in the minority party and those not chairing any committee at a significant disadvantage toward conducting effective oversight.
  • Federal courts, inspector generals, the FCC, Federal Trade Commission, and Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board can conduct oversight into privacy abuses.
  • Cybersecurity experts who discover classified government backdoors in encryption algorithms and communications apps used by the public can publish their research without the risk of criminal penalties. The bill correctly places the burden on governments to hide their surveillance backdoors academic researchers and other experts should not face legal risks for discovering them.

With these new amendments, security researchers are also protected from revealing classified government surveillance backdoors that have been added to encryption algorithms and communications apps that are utilized by the public.

Hacking into government systems or unlawfully obtaining nonpublic government information, though, is still off-limits and would lead to prosecution.

With these changes, researchers would be able to analyze government mobile apps, communication protocols, and algorithms and disclose any vulnerabilities and backdoors without fear of prosecution.

The current legislation can be found in chapter 37 of title 18 [cornell.edu], United States Code and the proposed amendments can be read here [house.gov].

Senator Wyden has also released a summary of the bill/FAQ [senate.gov] that provides an overview as to why the legislation is being introduced and answers some commonly asked questions.


Original Submission