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DEF CON 11 - Cindy Cohn - What Hackers Need to Know about Post 9/11 Legal Changes

535 views · Published 18 February 2014 · 53:32 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: DEFCONConference · 2014 · Science & Technology

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Cindy Cohn - What Hackers Need to Know about Post 9/11 Legal Changes
What Hackers Need to Know about Post 9/11 Legal Changes

The Bush Administration's relentless assault on freedom and privacy online and offline hit the ground running with the Patriot Act in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but hasn't slowed since then. While the terrorist acts had absolutely no relationship to computer hacking, hackers were a clear target in the Patriot Act and subsequent developments. The changes in the legal landscape are vast and wide, but anyone interested in computer security research, whether professionally or as a hobby, should have a basic understanding of the new world order. EFF was one of the broad coalition of groups that fought the Patriot Act -- its analysis comes up first in a Google search on the law -- and continues its work opposing all of its ugly brothers, sisters, cousins and stepchildren. The talk will focus on the portions of these laws and programs that affect hackers of all hat colors, including:

* Changes in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
* The expanded definitions of "terrorist" and "material assistance to terrorists" and what they may mean for toolmakers
* All your logs are belong to us - the reduced provisions for subpoenas to ISPs and others who have information about you
* What reduced judicial oversight,fewer checks and balances and more sharing among various cops means in practice
* What Patriot II/DSEA holds in store
* TIA, CAPPS II and other acronyms you should know about
* How can you legally to better protect yourself and others. 

Cindy Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She is responsible for overseeing the EFF's overall legal strategy. EFF has been actively involved in nearly all areas where civil liberties are impacted online. EFF has focused in the past few years on the challenge to the constitutional rights presented by recent changes and broad application of intellectual property laws, including Felten v. RIAA, Universal v. Reimerdes (2600 Magazine), Newmark v. Turner (ReplayTV is not a crime) and advising the criminal defense attorneys in U.S. v. Sklyarov. The EFF has also worked to preserve the right to anonymous speech online and continues to defend those accused of various offenses based upon their protected speech activities. In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, EFF has returned to its roots, focusing on the issues of government surveillance and other traditional civil liberties online.

Ms. Cohn first became involved with the EFF over 7 years ago, when the EFF asked her to serve as the lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful federal court challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography. That case was the first to hold that source code was protected expression subject to protection under the First Amendment. The Bernstein case was one of the major catalysts for decision by the U.S. government in January, 2000, to dramatically loosen its restrictions on the export of encryption software.

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