US to screen online traffic to and from gov’t agencies

Washington – The Obama administration is planning to use the National Security Agency to screen internet traffic between government agencies and the private sector, the Washington Post reported.

The project was first initiated by the previous administration of President George W. Bush asn was due to be set in motion in February.

The aim is to protect the govenment computer network from attacks from outside, the Post said quoting Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Her department has been tasked with guiding the NASA in the fight against cyber terrorism, she said.

“We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has.

But… they will be guided, led and in a sense directed by the people we have at the Department of Homeland Security,” Napolitano said.

The plans  risk-igniting the fierce battle here abouut protection of civil liberties, with the Bush administration accused of having tightened controls on telecommunications and Internet networks.

In the Bush-era, the NSA was given the task of carrying out unauthorized wire taps on telephone calls between the United States and abroad.

But Napolitano said the NSA would only be charged with looking at data going to or from the government system.

“Each time a private citizen visited a ‘dot.gov’ web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employees, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network,” the Post wrote. – AP