What do the presidential candidates think of domestic intelligence collection — or spying on Americans, depending on your point of view?  What do they think of Ed Snowden?

We haven’t heard a lot about the NSA or Snowden during the noisy campaigns so far, and that’s a shame. That’s because all the air is being sucked out of the conversation by more trivial concerns, such as Donald Trump’s debate schedule.  But all the candidates have spoken about domestic spying and about Snowden.

As we welcome election season proper, here’s a primer on the candidates’ views.

But first, a few notes: The most remarkable item of note is that Sen. Bernie Sanders voted against the original Patriot Act back in 2001 as a member of the House. He’s part of a very select group who did so.

Second, while some candidates have expressed a bit more sympathy for Snowden’s role as whistleblower, they’ve all called for him to face prosecution for treason. Even Sanders.

REPUBLICANS

Marco Rubio

On Snowden: He “sparked conspiracy theories”

From the Atlantic: “We must also distinguish these reasonable concerns from conspiracy theories sparked by Edward Snowden. This man is a traitor who has sought assistance and refuge from some of the world’s most notorious violators of liberty and human rights.”

On domestic surveillance: (The Washington Post) Those who voted for the Freedom Act, like Ted Cruz, put America at risk by making it harder to gather intelligence.

Ted Cruz

On Snowden: His opinion seems to have grown harsher over time

In 2013, he said (TheHill.com): “If it is the case that the federal government is seizing millions of personal records about law-abiding citizens, and if it is the case that there are minimal restrictions on accessing or reviewing those records, then I think Mr. Snowden has done a considerable public service by bringing it to light.”

More recently, he said: “Today, we know that Snowden violated federal law, that his actions materially aided terrorists and enemies of the United States, and that he subsequently fled to China and Russia,” he continued. “Under the Constitution, giving aid to our enemies is treason.”

On surveillance: (The Guardian) Cruz has defended his Senate for the USA Freedom Act, which clarified the NSA’s metadata telephone records collection pogram

Donald Trump

On Snowden: He’s hinted that he’d lead a charge to return and execute Snowden.

“I think he’s a terrible traitor, and you know what we used to do in the good old days when we were a strong country? You know what we used to do to traitors, right?” Trump said on Fox. 

On surveillance: “I tend to err on the side of security, I must tell you,” he has said (TheHill.com).  “I assume when I pick up my telephone people are listening to my conversations anyway, if you want to know the truth… It’s a pretty sad commentary.”

He also said he would be “fine” with restoring provisions of the Patriot Act (TheHill.com) to allow for the bulk data collection.

DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton

On Snowden: He should ‘face the music’

(The Atlantic) “He broke the laws of the United States… He could have been a whistleblower, he could have gotten all the protections of a whistleblower. He chose not to do that. He stole very important information that has fallen into the wrong hands so I think he should not be brought home without facing the music.”

On surveillance:

Clinton voted for both the 2001 Patriot Act and the 2008 FISA Amendments that extended NSA data collection capabilities.  More on her views at The Atlantic.

Bernie Sanders

On Snowden: “I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public … he did break the law, and I think there should be a penalty to that,” Sanders said (HuffingtonPost.com). He went on to say that the role Snowden played in educating the public about violations of their civil liberties should be considered before he is sentenced. On the other hand, this mildly Snowden sympathetic story is posted on Sanders’ senate webpage.

On surveillance:

Sanders voted against Patriot Act in 2001 as a member of the House of Representatives.  Later in the Senate, he voted against the 2008 FISA Amendments.

 

Our second annual study on Exchanging Cyber Threat Intelligence: There Has to Be a Better Way reveals interesting trends in how organizations are participating in initiatives or programs for exchanging threat intelligence with peers, industry groups, IT vendors and government.

According to the 692 IT and IT security practitioners surveyed, there is more recognition that the exchange of threat intelligence can improve an organization’s security posture and situational awareness. However, concerns about trust in the sources of intelligence and timeliness of the information continue to be a deterrent to participation in such initiatives.

Forty-seven percent of respondents say their organization had a material security breach that involved an attack that compromised the networks or enterprise systems. This attack could have been external (i.e. hacker), internal (i.e. malicious insider) or both. Most respondents (65 percent) say threat intelligence could have prevented or minimized the consequences of the attack.

Following are key research takeaways:

Threat intelligence is essential for a strong security posture. Seventy-five percent of respondents, who are familiar and involved in their company’s cyber threat intelligence activities or process, believe gathering and using threat intelligence is essential to a strong security posture.

Potential liability and lack of trust in sources of intelligence, keep some organizations from participating. Organizations that only partially participate cite potential liability of sharing (62 percent of respondents) and lack of trust in the sources of intelligence (60 percent of respondents). However, more respondents believe there is a benefit to exchanging threat intelligence.

Organizations rely upon peers and security vendors for threat intelligence. Sixty-five percent of respondents say they engage in informal peer-to-peer exchange of information or through a vendor threat exchange service (45 percent of respondents). IT vendors and peers are also considered to provide the most actionable information. Law enforcement or government officials are not often used as a source for threat intelligence.

Threat intelligence needs to be timely and easy to prioritize. Sixty-six percent of respondents who are only somewhat or not satisfied with current approaches say it is because the information is not timely and 46 percent complain the information is not categorized according to threat type or attacker.

Organizations are moving to a centralized program controlled by a dedicated team.  A huge barrier to effective collaboration in the exchange of threat intelligence is the existence of silos. Centralizing control over the exchange of threat intelligence is becoming more prevalent and might address the silo problem.

I hope you will download the full report.

Verizon managed to ground an airline for several hours on Jan. 14. But it’s important to ask: Who’s really to blame?

Discount airliner JetBlue appears to have cut some corners with its disaster recovery planning. The airline suffered nationwide delays on Thursday when many of its computer systems went down, preventing fliers from checking in. The problems lasted at least three hours, and probably longer, halting flights at many airports.

JetBlue blamed the outage on Verizon.

“We’re currently experiencing network issues due to a Verizon data center power outage. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” JetBlue said on its blog. “The power was disrupted during a maintenance operation at the Verizon data center.  Verizon can provide more details into the cause.”

At 2:30 p.m. ET, JetBlue posted an update saying it was still experiencing system issues.

Verizon told me the problem began three hours earlier.

“On Thursday morning at 11:37 am ET, a Verizon data center experienced a power outage that impacted JetBlue’s operations,” the firm said in a statement. “JetBlue’s systems are now being restored.  Our engineering team has been working to restore service quickly, and power has been restored to the data center.”

The impact of the outage was dramatic: “Customer support systems, including jetblue.com, mobile apps, 1-800-JETBLUE, check-in and airport counter/gate systems, are impacted,” JetBlue said.

Consumers spent the early afternoon Tweeting their displeasure and the uncertainty the outage created.

“At least make some estimates on flight delays so people can make informed decisions,” said Jared Levy on Twitter.

It’s worth noting that JetBlue said on its blog at 1:50 p.m. that power had been restored to to Verizon’s data center, “and we are working to fully restore our systems as soon as possible.”

That sure sounds like JetBlue is completely dependent on Verizon. Maybe the firm had some rollover plan that it never implemented, and got the idea that doing so would take longer than waiting for Verizon to fix its electricity problem. Either option doesn’t sound great. A misbehaving backhoe can take down a major airline’s operation? In the middle of the day?  And it stays down until Verizon can implement a power fix? Sounds like someone’s plan B wasn’t grade A.

That’s not uncommon, however. One of my favorite stories, now nearly five years old, was titled “Why plan B’s often work out badly. ” Inspired by the Japanese nuclear power plant disaster, I examined why backup plans often fail when reality strikes.  The short answer: It’s very hard to create an entirely duplicate universe where you can test plan B.  And it’s even hard to keep on testing it regularly and make sure it actually works. To wit: Your snow plow often doesn’t start after the first snow because it’s been sitting idle all summer.

Of course, big airlines should do better. But reality is, they often don’t. Hopefully more details will emerge soon so we can all learn from this.