bourbakiaxiom: Snowden and the Mathematicians In the June 2014…
Snowden and the Mathematicians
In the June 2014 edition of the Notices of the AMS (the American Mathematical Society – a three-letter entity of less notoriety than the NSA!) two math professors provide contrasting responses to the Edward Snowden revelations of the NSA surveillance programs. They have previously worked as academics in either assisting the NSA, or more generally in the area of cryptography and security, but neither have been direct employees, nor held security clearances.
Dr Keith Devlin from Stanford University is probably best known to Americans at That Math Guy on NPR. He worked with the NSA post 9/11 on the NIMD project, and his main concern, apart from the betrayal of trust, is that the NSA data gathering severely weakens US security. He now feels forced to break ties with the NSA, and does not recommend the agency to his student for employment.
In contrast, Prof Andrew Odlyzko of the University of Minnesota, does still recommend the NSA to his students. Having misgivings, and urging some reforms, he sees the agency as important for protecting US interests and global information systems. A major line of his argument is that it is inevitable that privacy is being eroded, and hence it is better that the NSA be ahead of others.
Despite his guarded support to the NSA, Odlyzko raises some of the more critical opinions:
“My carefully considered view is that our society has become preoccupied with terrorism to an absurd and harmful degree. That is what has driven the intelligence agencies to the extreme measures they have taken.”
“The moves taken in the name of fighting terrorism, including the intrusive NSA data collection that has recently come to light and more generally the militarization of our society, are not justified by the dangers we currently face from terrorism. In fact, these moves will likely inhibit our ability to deal with many of the other threats and probably will even inhibit the antiterrorism campaign.”
As Western politicians use IS extremism as the latest excuse for another round of drastic reductions to our liberties and increased powers to intelligence agencies, it is worth considering these thoughtful critiques of accepting politicians’ knee-jerk and unbalanced measures.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1m8zDpO.
