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Daily Archives: February 1, 2016

Reconciling Perspectives: New Report Reframes Encryption Debate

“The Berklett Cybersecurity Project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is pleased to announce the publication of a new report entitled “Don’t Panic: Making Progress on the ‘Going Dark’ Debate.” The report examines the high-profile debate around government access to encryption, and offers a new perspective gleaned from the discussion, debate, and analyses of an exceptional and diverse group of security and policy experts from academia, civil society, and the U.S. intelligence community. “Many conversations on sensitive subjects of technology and security are productive because they’re among people who already agree,” said Prof. Jonathan Zittrain, faculty chair of the Berkman Center. “The aim of this project is to bring together people who come from very different starting points and roles, and who very rarely have a chance to speak frankly with one another. We want to come away with some common insights that could help push the discussion into some new territory.” The report takes issue with the usual framing of the encryption debate and offers context and insights that widen the scope of the conversation to more accurately reflect the surveillance landscape both now and in the future. “In this report, we’re questioning whether the ‘going dark’ metaphor used by the FBI and other government officials fully describes the future of the government’s capacity to access communications,” said Berkman Center fellow Bruce Schneier. “We think it doesn’t. While it may be true that there are pockets of dimness, there other areas where communications and information are actually becoming more illuminated, opening up more vectors for surveillance.” “There’s no question that the use of encryption impedes government surveillance of terrorists and criminals,” said Matthew Olsen, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “And we take seriously the concerns of the FBI and others about encryption. We looked forward to consider the overall trajectory of technology and surveillance, and identified points of consensus about the government’s ability to collect information necessary to protect the public.” Set within the recent implementation of encryption by various companies and the recent history of the government’s increasing concerns, the report outlines how market forces and commercial interests as well as the increasing prevalence of networked sensors in machines and everyday appliances point to a future with more opportunities for surveillance, not less. The group and report’s signatories include high-profile individuals who bring a spectrum of perspectives to the table. “The sign-on from this set of participants is unique. These are people who were likely to disagree about many things in the debate, and yet we found common ground,” said Senior Researcher David O’Brien.”

The Library of Congress by the Numbers in 2015

“The Library of Congress today released statistics for fiscal year 2015. Its collection now comprises more than 162 million physical items in a wide variety of formats. The daily business of being the world’s largest library, the home of the U.S. Copyright Office and a supportive agency to the U.S. Congress resulted in the Library… Continue Reading

Working Paper – Bank standalone credit ratings

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – Bank standalone credit ratings by Michael R King, Steven Ongena and Nikola Tarashev, Working Papers No 542, February 2016. “We study a unique experiment to examine the importance of rating agencies’ private information for bank shareholders. On July 20, 2011, Fitch Ratings refined their bank standalone ratings, which measure… Continue Reading

Natural gas leak at CA storage site raises environmental concerns

EIA report, February 1, 2016 – “On October 23, 2015, Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) detected a major leak at Aliso Canyon, an underground natural gas storage facility located 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Aliso Canyon storage facility, which has 115 wells, is the second-largest natural gas storage field in the western United… Continue Reading

CBO Launches New Budget and Economic Data Page

“We are excited to announce the launch of a new Budget and Economic Data page on our website. The new page, which can be accessed from our home page, features links to Excel spreadsheets containing budget and economic projections regularly released in CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook and Updates and in the associated supplemental material.… Continue Reading

Women’s History Month: March 2016

Census – “The roots of National Women’s History Month go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of… Continue Reading

2014 Manufacturing and International Trade Report

“This report from the U.S. Census Bureau provides a comprehensive comparison between detailed manufacturing product class data and associated import and export data. The data are published on a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) basis from the 2014 Annual Survey of Manufactures, presented with official U.S. export and import merchandise trade statistics.” Continue Reading

GAO Report – State Marijuana Legalization

State Marijuana Legalization: DOJ Should Document Its Approach to Monitoring the Effects of Legalization, GAO-16-1: Published: Dec 30, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 1, 2016. “Officials from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) reported monitoring the effects of state marijuana legalization relative to DOJ policy, generally in two ways. First,… Continue Reading