Hey Congress let us put rootkits and malware in the electronic media we sell to customers! –The Entertainment Industry. Aka no one learned a god damn thing from the
Sony BMG CD copy protection rootkit scandal of 2005–2007. Why should someone pay for viril with their entertainment when they can get that for free!
But don’t take it from me, here is the TL:DR 84 page document named
“Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.” Now with MOAR buzzwords, management speak, persecution complex and general lack of knowledge pertaining to technology. Highlights include:
The ACME award for lack of forethought goes to…While not currently permitted under U.S. law, there are increasing calls for creating a more permissive environment for active network defense that allows companies not only to stabilize a situation but to take further steps, including actively retrieving stolen information, altering it within the intruder’s networks, or even destroying the information within an unauthorized network. Additional measures go further, including photographing the hacker using his own system’s camera, implanting malware in the hacker’s network, or even physically disabling or destroying the hacker’s own computer or network.
Additionally, software can be written that will allow only authorized users to open files containing valuable information. If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account. Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet, yet they serve to blunt attacks and stabilize a cyber incident to provide both time and evidence for law enforcement to become involved.
Hey let’s start a cyberwar, what could possibly go wrong?
Recommend that Congress and the administration authorize aggressive cyber actions against cyber IP thieves. Currently, Internet attacks against hackers for purposes of self-defense are as illegal under U.S. law as the attacks by hackers themselves. As discussed in the cyber recommendations above, if counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability of those conducting IP theft. These attacks would raise the cost to IP thieves of their actions, potentially deterring them from undertaking theses activities in the first place.
The Commission is not ready to endorse this recommendation because of the larger questions of collateral damage caused by computer attacks, the dangers of misuse of legal hacking authorities, and the potential for nondestructive countermeasures such as beaconing, tagging, and self-destructing that are currently in development to stymie hackers without the potential for destructive collateral damage. Further work and research are necessary before moving ahead.
Fuck you World Health Organization do what I say!
Recommend to Congress and the administration that U.S. funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) program budget in whole or in part be withheld until (1) the WHO’s process of certifying national regulatory agencies includes attestation that IP protection is an essential part of the regulatory evaluation process, and (2) the WHO refrains from prequalifying any product until the regulating agency of jurisdiction demonstrates and certifies that it does not violate IP rights. An additional approach—a carrot approach—would be to have a specified WHO contribution by the U.S. government, in addition to current funding, that would be dedicated to developing, implementing, and evaluating the above improvements to the regulatory and prequalification processes.
The U.S. government has leverage at the WHO chiefly because of its financial support, which consists of annual “means tested” contributions to the WHO’s program budget and “voluntary” contributions whose total value is about $350 million. This support from the United States can be a carrot or a stick to influence the WHO’s actions.