The National Security Agency's "Perfect Citizen" program--as first reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources--aims to detect cyber threats and prevent attacks by assessing activity on privately owned networks. The power grid and transportation networks are likely targets for the program, but no private networks were said to be off limits. The Journal reported that in some cases, the eavesdropping organization would install sensors on a corporate network, and in other cases a company may play a larger role in buying sensors and deciding what data to share with the government. The NSA has taken issue with the newspaper's characterization of the program, but has not offered a clear explanation of what is involved.

Companies can't be forced to work with the NSA's program, but the government "can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate," one unnamed source said. The news of "Perfect Citizen" re-ignited what is becoming an almost continuous debate over all things Big Brother. 

PCWorld's Tony Bradley argues that the program "seems both valuable and long overdue." Some businesses provide essential services for the country, and therefore they are main targets of attack, he writes: "The critical dependence of the country on those companies means they must sacrifice some autonomy and privacy for the greater good."

Conceding that it is difficult to find the right balance between security and freedom, Bradley writes that the "challenge is to gather intelligence and provide adequate protection for national security and the critical infrastructure, without infringing on the rights and privacy of private sector companies any more than necessary."

Wayne Rush, in a post at eWeek, takes the argument a step further. Asserting that the country today is under siege, he says that our concern should be about whether a surveillance program like "Perfect Citizen" will go far enough in protecting us.

The telephone companies, for example, are critical to the nation's well-being, Rush notes. While we have no indication that security in the phone companies' infrastructure has been breached by foreign enemies, we can't be certain, he warns: "It's entirely possible that these communications networks have been penetrated, malware of some kind inserted, and then left for the day when the attack is to take place," he says.

What has not been made clear, however, is precisely where the massive threat justifying expanded government intrusion in the private sector is coming from. Ryan Singel, in a column at Wired, notes that "Perfect Citizen," is quite exceptional in positing the NSA--part of the Department of Defense--in the business of private networks. 

"The secretive NSA has long had carte blanche to spy on the world's communications outside U.S. borders, but violated that limitation during the George W. Bush administration, when it was allowed to spy on Americans' online communications with help from pliant telecoms such as AT&T," he writes. "That spying was largely legalized in July 2008, when Congress rewrote the nation's surveillance law and gave retroactive immunity to the companies that helped."

Singel offers a revealing review of how support for NSA's program has been fostered. He recounts the efforts of government contractors to foment worries about cyberwar. He notes that while many high-profile stories have been lofted about foreign spies--usually Russian or Chinese--infiltrating U.S. networks, no evidence is offered and sources are not named.

For more:
- see The Wall Street Journal article
- read Tony Bradley's post at PCWorld
- check out Wayne Rush's post at eWeek
- see Ryan Singel's post at Wired

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