A report in this week’s Washington Post said that plans are to move ahead with a plan to screen government traffic on private networks. AT&T will serve as a test site, and the NSA will assist in the plan. According to the White House, the system is being used to protect computer systems from attack, a particularly important area given recent high-profile attacks and the widely publicized need for government attention to cyber-security. There’s no question that government computers need to be more secure than they are now. The questions now are, will this new move help, and does it move too far into the area of intrusion into the activities of private citizens?

The latter question is especially relevant in the post-Bush era, when warrantless wiretapping was the order of the day, and the administration then was operating under the misguided strategy of “anything for the sake of national security.” Perhaps being aware of past oversteps from the previous administration, President Obama did make it a point to say that the system is meant to protect computer systems from attack, and would not involve monitoring any private sector networks or traffic. DHS officials also noted that the program will only look at data that moves to or from government systems.

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