Episode #58: An Interview with Andy Ozment

In episode 58 of the Cyberlaw Podcast, our guest is Andy Ozment, who heads the DHS cybersecurity unit charged with helping improve cybersecurity in the private sector and the civilian agencies of the federal government. We ask how his agency's responsibilities differ from NSA's and FBI's, quote scripture to question his pronunciation of ISAO, dig into the question whether sharing countermeasures is a prelude to cybervigilantism, and address the crucial question of how lawyers should organize cybersecurity information sharing organizations (hint: the fewer lawyers and the more clients the better). In the news roundup, we revisit the cybersecurity implications of net neutrality, and Stephanie Roy finds evidence that leads me to conclude that the FCC has stolen the FTC's playbook (and, for all we know, deflated the FTC's football). This ought to at least help AT&T in its fight with the FTC over throttling, but that's no sure bet.

I explain why Hillary Clinton's email server was a security disaster for the first two months of her tenure – and engage in utterly unsupported speculation that she closed the biggest security gap in March 2009 because someone in the intelligence community caught foreign governments reading her mail.

In news with better grounding, the Wyndham case goes to the Third Circuit and the bench is hot. We explain why this is good for Wyndham. In other litigation news, the feds respond to Microsoft in the Irish warrant case. Michael and I agree that the Justice Department is praying for a cold bench.

Finally, in two updates from earlier podcasts, it looks as though China may have backed down on backdoors, for now, so Silicon Valley can go back to worrying about Jim Comey. And, I explain my claim from last week's show that the FREAK vulnerability is overhyped to support a simplistic civil libertarian morality tale.

 

As always, send your questions and suggestions for interview candidates to [e-mail] or leave a message at [phone].