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Co-Chair Of Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus Says SOPA Would Interfere With Online Security

from the more-and-more-opposition dept

Mon, Jan 9th 2012 4:07pm — Mike Masnick

The opposition in Congress against SOPA continues to grow. The latest is a big one: the co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, Rep. Jim Langevin, has come out against SOPA, stating his fears that the bill would negatively impact "security and openness" online. He noted that it "would interfere with efforts to increase transparency and security online" and specifically noted that it would undermine DNSSEC and similar efforts that "help increase trust online."

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Filed Under: congress, cybersecurity, dns blocking, jim langevin, pipa, protect ip, security, sopa

20 Comments

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Nicolas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 4:38pm

This passes for logic in congress. Never mind that it is an attack on the liberty of Americans; that would be of little interest to most congressmen.
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 5:09pm
  
  Re:
  Who cares as long as he's against it for good reasons.
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  - Nicolas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 5:34pm
    
    Re: Re:
    The right reasons? How did Langevin vote on detaining Americans indefinitely without trial and the Patriot Act? (in favor.) First principles are important.
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- Al Bert (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 5:25pm
  
  Re:
  Sadly, the reality is likely just that there's no money to be made by waffling on civil liberties issues. At this point, the arguments must sway the whims of congress. If there's no money to be made, why would congress care?
  
  I used to have my cynicism in check, but exploring the depths of copyright and patent abuse over the last couple decades has left me with the lowest of expectations.
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  - Hephaestus (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 7:32am
    
    Re: Re:
    " If there's no money to be made, why would congress care? "
    
    With the reaction to SOPA-PIPA we are seeing a small step being taken towards fixing politics in the US. As to why they should begin to care, re-election.
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    - Al Bert (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:30pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      True. If this does become a significantly visible campaign issue, let's hope the uninformed learn of the dangers of this sort of legislation. Keep in mind that those who rely on television for their news will be subject to a very biased coverage of these topics.
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    - gary (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:38pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      exactly we jus keep on keepin on
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Pixelation, 9 Jan 2012 @ 6:44pm

Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus

Say that ten times fast...
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 7:01pm

Lamar Smith's response can be found here:

http://craphound.com/images/sopa__i_can__t_hear_you_by_chadrocco-d4lncoz.jpg
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- Rekrul, 9 Jan 2012 @ 10:09pm
  
  Re:
  Someone should put that on a billboard outside the Capital.
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- Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 7:02am
  
  Re:
  Well, if he gets voted out I am sure there is a job waiting for him at the MP/RIAA.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 10:39pm

I would donate to that, especially if it went up outside his office in Texas as well.
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 10:55pm
  
  Re:
  Damn, I always do that when replying to the most recent comment! Should have been in response to:
  
  "Rekrul, Jan 9th, 2012 @ 10:09pm
  
  Someone should put that on a billboard outside the Capital."
  
  Not to the article itself.
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anonymous, 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:45am

left it a bit late to have a guilty conscience about SOPA, hasn't he? he would have known what it would do so why wait til now? oh! could it be to do with all the rest of the negative opinions now or is he looking for re-election?
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anonymous, 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:46am

left it a bit late to have a guilty conscience about SOPA, hasn't he? he would have known what it would do so why wait til now? oh! could it be to do with all the rest of the negative opinions now or is he looking for re-election?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:01am

I suspect DNSSEC is a small part of their objections, the large part being that encryption would become standard.
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- Machin Shin (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 6:05am
  
  Re:
  Well that is part of the problem now isn't it? The bill outlaws anything used to get around the measures of the bill. So if everyone starts encrypting everything then encryption will get attacked.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 6:51am
    
    Re: Re:
    They'd still have to intercept and decode to find if the communication is infringing - massive increase in computing and workload - not to mention you'd probably need some purty serious permissions for it, like wiretapping permits.
    Unless of course the next step is to outlaw encryption.
    Encryption essentially removes 'man in the middle' (ISP subpoena) as a quick and easy solution.
    
    It would however be a massive blow to the intelligence community to have to deal with an exponentially increased volume of encrypted data to find what they're after.
    So yeah, from a cybersecurity point of view it's purty much all bad.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 7:07am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Short version, not only would the MAFIAA stab themselves in the foot, they'd stab the intelligence community in the foot aswell.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 3:53am

What efforts to increase transparency online? Certainly not the government's. They just talked about it during the elections and then forgot about it completely afterwards.
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