As the NSA tries to cover up its ties with Google, in a potential spying scandal, DARPA Director Regina Dugan is leaving the Pentagon to take a post at Google.
In the midst of what looks like it will turn out to be a massive spying scandal between the NSA and Google, like that of the NSA’s partnership with AT&T to spy on all phone calls placed within the U.S., we learn today that the Director of the Pentagon’s Premiere Research Lab, DARPA, is stepping down to take a “senior executive position” at Google.
Just three days ago, news hit the wire that the Department of Justice asked U.S. Federal courts to keep any partnerships between the Google and the NSA secret.
The request for state secrecy comes from EPIC filing a Freedom of Information request act attempting to discover why Google had not enabled encryption in Gmail by default which led to user’s email accounts being hacked and other security vulnerabilities.
EPIC apparently hit a sore spot within the government, as the NSA responded by saying they could not confirm nor deny any relationships with Google because doing so would compromise National Security.
As the story of Google’s true relationship with the NSA continues to unfold the Director of DARPA, Regina Dugan, is currently in the middle of her own scandal in which she is being investigated for contracts she has given out during her tenure.
The National Law Journal reports on the secrecy over the NSA ties to Google.
DOJ Asks Court To Keep Secret Any Partnership Between Google, NSA
The Justice Department is defending the government’s refusal to discuss—or even acknowledge the existence of—any cooperative research and development agreement between Google and the National Security Agency.
The Washington based advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center sued in federal district court here to obtain documents about any such agreement between the Internet search giant and the security agency.
The NSA responded to the suit with a so-called “Glomar” response in which the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny whether any responsive records exist. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington sided with the government last July.
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EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request in early 2010, noting media reports at the time that the NSA and Google had agreed to a partnership following the cyber attacks in China that year against Google.
EPIC asked for, among other things, communication between the NSA and Google about Gmail and Google’s “decision to fail to routinely encrypt” messages before Jan. 13, 2010.
The NSA’s response to the request for records noted that the agency “works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associations” to ensure the availability of secure information systems. The agency, however, refused to confirm or deny any partnership with Google.
The NSA said it cannot provide documents—or confirm their existence—because the information would alert adversaries about the security agency’s priorities, threat assessments and countermeasures.
DOJ said media reports about the alleged Google partnership with NSA do not constitute official acknowledgement.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both reported that Google contacted the NSA after the Jan. 2010 cyber attack, which the company said was rooted in China and targeted access to accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Wall Street Journal said NSA’s general counsel worked out a cooperative research and development agreement with Google.
“The NSA mischaracterizes EPIC’s FOIA Request by stating that responsive documents would reveal ‘information about a potential Google-NSA relationship,’” Rotenberg said.
The crux of the records request, Rotenberg said, is Google’s switch to application encryption by default for Gmail accounts soon after the cyber attack. Google in 2008 began allowing users to encrypt mail passing through the company servers, EPIC said in its brief, but encryption was not provided by default.
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