Some fear that included in this potential data trove is information that would help the Taliban identify and retaliate against individuals who assisted U.S. pullout of Afghanistan sensitive data may have fallen into the Taliban ’s hands. However, Fox reported that “news of the breach comes just weeks after a Senate Homeland Security Committee report rated the department ’s overall information security program as a "D" – the lowest possible rating within the federal government ’ s model.”Īlso in mid-August, reports began to surface that during the U.S. According to the news outlet ’ s source, “The State Department is the latest to fall victim to a cyber-attack and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command.”įox News was not provided information on the extent of the breach. On August 21, Fox News reported that the State Department was hit by a cyber attack. In the wrong hands, this list could be used to oppress, harass, or persecute people on the list and their families.” Expressing a similar understanding, the security researcher noted, “The terrorist watchlist is made up of people who are suspected of terrorism but who have not necessarily been charged with any crime. A typical record in the list contains a full name, citizenship, gender, date of birth, passport number, no-fly indicator, and more.Īs NRA-ILA and the American Civil Liberties Union have repeatedly pointed out, the terrorist watchlist is rife with inaccuracies and inclusion on the list occurs without due process and bears little relation to the threat an individual might pose. The TSC maintains the country's no-fly list, which is a subset of the larger watchlist. The watchlist came from the Terrorist Screening Center, a multi-agency group administered by the FBI. On August 16, a security researcher posted an item to in which he explained how he “discovered a terrorist watchlist containing 1.9 million records online without a password or any other authentication required to access it.” The latter half of summer has only bolstered this thesis. Given the political debate surrounding firearm ownership, gun owners could expect similar malicious treatment were the government empowered to collect firearm data. The incident proved that political actors within the federal government will break the law by leaking sensitive information in order to advance an ideological goal. In June, NRA-ILA directed gun owner attention to an Internal Revenue Service leak of the private tax returns of several wealthy Americans. The federal government ’s impotence in safeguarding data is a constant threat to gun owner privacy. However, the ever-present threat of confiscation is not the only compelling argument against the government collecting data on guns and gun owners. National Council to Control Handguns (now Brady) Chairman Nelson “Pete” Shields acknowledged registration as a prerequisite to handgun confiscation. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have all called for gun confiscation. politicians such as President Joe Biden, Vic e President Kamala Harris, and Sen. In addition to several notable instances in foreign countries, registration records were used to confiscate firearms in New York City in 19. Gun rights advocates understand that collection of gun and gun owner data facilitates firearm confiscation. ATF director nominee and paid gun control lobbyist David Chipman has called for the federal registration of tens of millions of commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms. ATF routinely whines about how the out-of-business dealer records (4473s) housed at the National Tracing Center have not been converted into a digitized searchable format. These examples of official incompetence have once again made clear that the federal government cannot be trusted with gun owner data.įederal bureaucrats and gun control advocates have made clear that they want the government to maintain more information on firearms and firearm owners. In only the last month, three fresh examples of the federal government ’s inability to secure sensitive data have come to light. The federal government has rarely made a habit of covering itself in glory, but in recent weeks it seems determined to engender mistrust among the American public.
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