"I helped to organize it [Digital Equilibrium Project] with McKinsey's help with the idea that people on various sides were talking past one another, often without the facts," former Executive Chairman of RSA Art Coviello told eWEEK. "Our participants bring significant networks and resources to bear from themselves and the organizations they work with, and we're confident we have the resources to execute on the mission." [...] "We hope to create a groundswell of thinking—not through acrimonious and emotional debate, but through active listening and fact-based dialogue so we can we make progress before it is too late," he said.
So says Art Coviello of his new project -- one that he hopes will bring some coherence to the balancing act between security and privacy. This is the same Art Coviello who said anonymity is the "
enemy of privacy." Why? Because it allows bad people to do bad things and get away with it -- a sentiment echoed by any number of law enforcement officials and intelligence agency heads. Coviello's timing couldn't be better. Against the backdrop of the
FBI's efforts to force Apple to help it break into iPhones, Coviello hopes a balanced discussion of the issues may result in workable common ground between parties he feels often "talk past each other." But the Digital Equilibrium Project isn't going to be the balanced discussion Coviello is framing it as.
The list of participants seems to indicate the discussion will result in severe inner ear damage, rather than equilibrium.
Stewart Baker Former 1st Assistant Secretary of DHS General Counsel of the NSA Michael Chertoff Executive Chairman of The Chertoff Group U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (’05-’09) Edward Davis Former Boston Police Commissioner Michael McConnell Former Director of the NSA and Director of National Intelligence [and head of Booz Allen, which goes unmentioned on DEG page...] JR Williamson Corporate Chief Information Officer, Northrop Grumman Richard Clarke Former White House Advisor Chairman and CEO, Good Harbor Security Risk Management [Former "cybersecurity czar" to be more precise, one who has suggested the government "search" internet traffic travelling in and out of the US (to prevent theft by China{?}). On the plus side, he did sign a letter to the Administration stating that mandated encryption backdoors are a terrible idea.]
That's only part of the stacked deck, but what a hand! NSA, DHS, Boston PD, military-industrial contractor, a cybersecurity "czar…" From there, it gets marginally better.
Tim Belcher Former CTO, RSA [RSA worked closely with the NSA to recommend an undermined encryption standard] Jim Bidzos Chairman and CEO, Verisign [Verisign has worked with ICE and others to make site seizures easier, participated in global internet censorship] Art Coviello Former Executive Chairman, RSA [See above] Kasha Gauthier Program Committee Co-Chair, NICE Special Advisor, Boston College Cybersecurity Masters Program [Not mentioned: Gauthier's position as Director of Academic and Community Alliances at RSA. Also serves as Director of Marketing and Strategy.]
It gets
much better from there. Most of the remaining names on this list have a long history of protecting privacy and working towards enhancing security for all internet users, not just government agencies.
Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D. Executive Director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University [Former Ontario Privacy Commissioner, who has stated that "encryption is freedom" and