Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast: Worthwhile Canadian Initiatives

In our interview this week, we explore multiple worthwhile Canadian initiatives withDominic Rochon, deputy chief of policy and communications for CSE, Canada’s version of the NSA and with Patricia Kosseim, general counsel and director general for policy at the Office of Canada’s Privacy Commissioner. Among other things, we take a close look at Canada’s oversight regime for intelligence, in which a retired judge gets to exercise executive authority over the CSE—in contrast to the US system where active judges do the same but pretend they’re carrying out a judicial function.

In the news roundup, Judge Robart is doing his best to hog the judicial headlines, not only blocking the Trump administration’s immigration policy but giving support to Microsoft’s suit to overturn discovery gag orders en masse. His opinion allows Microsoft to proceed with a lawsuit claiming that gag orders violated the First Amendment.

The Trump Administration could soon begin asking foreigners coming to the United States—particularly from some Muslim-majority countries—to turn over their social media accounts and passwords. This is a policy begun under the Obama administration and supported by bipartisan homeland security groups. I predict that it will nonetheless soon be trashed by the press as an Evil Trump Initiative.

Tallinn 2.0 is out. It applies international law to cyber activity at and below the threshold of armed conflict. Color me skeptical.

The cybersecurity Executive Order that’s been hanging fire for weeks is still hanging fire. A new draft has been leaked, though, and it’s better.

Hal Martin is indicted for stealing massive amounts of data from NSA and perhaps others. According to a Washington Post report, US officials think Martin may have stolen 75%of the NSA’s hacking tools. Ouch.

In other news, Rick Ledgett, the No. 2 official at the NSA is leaving but not because of Trump. And Google has told several prominent journalists that state-sponsored hackers are trying to break into their inboxes.

As always, the Cyberlaw Podcast welcomes feedback. Send an email to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com or leave a message at +1 202 862 5785.