Mark Rasch

Cyber Law Editor

Security Current


State of the [Cyber] Union

Posted on: 28 Jan 2014

On a bitter cold January day, the President of the United States appeared before a joint session of Congress to fulfill his Constitutional obligation to “from time to time give…

How the NSA Revelations Can Be Good for US Cloud Providers

Posted on: 22 Jan 2014

Conventional wisdom is that the revelations about the NSA domestic and international surveillance programs are bad news for US security, privacy, cloud and other companies. The revelations include assertions (probably…

Nest, Google and the Third Party Doctrine

Posted on: 19 Jan 2014

With Google’s acquisition of technology company Nest, not only has Big Data met the Internet of Things, we have allowed the camel’s nose into the tent of privacy. The Supreme…

Good Words, Small Change — Obama on NSA Surveillance

Posted on: 17 Jan 2014

On January 17, 2014 President Obama came to the “Great Room” at the U.S. Department of Justice (for the first time) to announce his reforms to the NSA’s data collection…

Schrodinger’s Catnip Revisited – Part I – The Lawful NSA Metadata Program

Posted on: 16 Jan 2014

In 1935, Austrian physicist Edwin Schrodinger posited a thought experiment illustrating the duality of quantum entanglement.  In his thought experiment, illustrating nuclear decay, a cat placed in a box would be…

Further Reflections on the NSA Bulk Data Collection

Posted on: 09 Jan 2014

I have already written about how a federal judge in New York ruled that the NSA’s collection of the telephone toll records on every call made is constitutional because, the…

A Vote in Favor of Making it Tough for Cops to Do Their Jobs

Posted on: 09 Jan 2014

Earlier in this space I wrote about the fact that, despite reports to the contrary, possession of marijuana is NOT legal in Colorado – it is still a federal crime.…

Once More Into the (Data) Breach – House GOP Proposes Obamacare Breach Bill

Posted on: 08 Jan 2014

As if we don’t have enough to worry about, Nextgov.com has reported that the first order of business for House Republicans is to introduce legislation mandating that the HHS CMS…

More Legal Gaps in SDNY NSA Bulk Data Collection Decision

Posted on: 06 Jan 2014

A further review of the decision of the Southern District of New York approving the NSA’s bulk data collection of all telephone metadata shows huge legal gaps which can now…

NY Times Blogger’s Predictions for Technology in 2014 – Privacy Implications

Posted on: 03 Jan 2014

A recent piece by NY Times Bits blogger Nick Bilton, Disruptions: “Coming in 2014: Extremely Smart Watches and Wearable TVs” described his predictions for technology in 2014, many of which…