Exploding Data: Reclaiming Our Cyber Security in the Digital Age

by Michael Chertoff

Overview

The most dangerous threat we—individually and as a society and country—face today is no longer military, but rather the increasingly pervasive exposure of our personal information; nothing undermines our freedom more than losing control of information about ourselves. And yet, as daily events underscore, we are ever more vulnerable to cyber-attack.

In this bracing book, Michael Chertoff makes clear that our laws and policies surrounding the protection of personal information, written for an earlier time, need to be completely overhauled in the Internet era. On the one hand, the collection of data—more widespread by business than by government, and impossible to stop—should be facilitated as an ultimate protection for society. On the other, standards under which information can be inspected, analyzed, or used must be significantly tightened. In offering his compelling call for action, Chertoff argues that what is at stake is not so much the simple loss of privacy, which is almost impossible to protect, but of individual autonomy—the ability to make personal choices free of manipulation or coercion. Offering colorful stories over many decades that illuminate the three periods of data gathering we have experienced, Chertoff explains the complex legalities surrounding issues of data collection and dissemination today, and charts a path that balances the needs of government, business, and individuals alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802127938
Publisher:	Grove Atlantic
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Chertoff was the second Secretary of Homeland Security from 2005–2009. He previously served at a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, as Assistant U.S. Attorney General, and as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey—one of only two U.S. Attorneys who was not replaced when the Clinton administration took office in 1993. Chertoff is the author of Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years. He is today Executive Chairman and Co-founder of The Chertoff Group, a security consulting company, and senior of counsel to the firm of Covington and Burling.

Read an Excerpt

In our world of big data, we want to give the government the appropriate legal authority to provide security while maintaining a sufficient scope of privacy and autonomy necessary for our human dignity. Citizens seek to enjoy the convenience and efficiency of modern commercial data-driven technology without putting their security and freedom at risk.

With its ability to generate and review massive amounts of data, today’s technology numbs society, creating social acceptance for our loss of privacy. Given the ease with which emails, telephone metadata, and other previously private information are captured by others, Americans have been surrendering control over electronic privacy. Today’s legal framework attempts to protect the right to privacy under a technology assumption that is decades old. We have come to accept the fact that our emails may be read and have become accustomed to our data being collected and used by others.

If privacy means the ability to hide or shield our actions and thoughts from prying eyes, that privacy ship has sailed. The volume of data we generate, and the analytic power that can be applied against that data, mean that few of us can remain opaque. I argue that the focus of our concern should shift to protecting our autonomy. We should maintain some degree of ownership and control over the data that we generate or that relates to us.

What is at stake is individual autonomy—the right to make the personal choices that effect our values and our destiny. A person can be manipulated and coerced many ways, but the most ominous involve the pressure that comes with constant, ongoing surveillance of our actions.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANTONY AUGOUSTAKIS
Introduction. Between Greece and Italy: Flavian Poetry and Its Traditions

I. FLAVIAN LITERATURE AND GREEK INTERTEXTS
1. ARIANNA SACERDOTI
Quis magna tuenti somnus? Scenes of Sleeplessness (and Intertextuality)
in Flavian Poetry

II. VALERIUS FLACCUS
2. DARCY KRASNE
When the Argo Met the Argo: Poetic Destruction in Valerius’ Argonautica

3. CRISTIANO CASTELLETTI
Aratus and the Aratean Tradition in Valerius’ Argonautica

4. SIMONE FINKMANN
Collective Speech and Silence in the Argonautica of Apollonius and Valerius

5. MARCO VAN DER SCHUUR
Conflating Funerals: The Deaths of Idmon and Tiphys in Valerius’ Argonautica

6. CAREY SEAL
Civil War and the Apollonian Model in Valerius’ Argonautica

7. DANIELA GALLI
Dionysius Scytobrachion’s Argonautica and Valerius

8. IRENE MITOUSI
Valerius’ Argonautica as an Ideological Epic of the Flavian era

III. STATIUS
9. JÖRN SOERINK
Tragic / Epic: Statius’ Thebaid and Euripides’ Hypsipyle

10. JEAN-MICHEL HULLS
Greek Author, Greek Past: Statius, Athens, and the Tragic Self

11. FEDERICA BESSONE
Polis, Court, Empire: Greek Culture, Roman Society,
and the System of Genres in Statius’ poetry

12. PAVLOS SFYROERAS
Like Purple on Ivory: A Homeric Simile in Statius’ Achilleid

IV. SILIUS ITALICUS
13. EVANGELOS KARAKASIS
Homeric Receptions in Flavian Epic: Intertextual Characterization in Punica 7

14. R. JOY LITTLEWOOD
Loyalty and the Lyre: Constructions of Fides in Hannibal’s
Capuan Banquets

15. MICHIEL VAN DER KEUR
meruit deus esse uideri: Silius’ Homer in Homer’s Punica 13

16. MARCO FUCECCHI
The Philosophy of Power: Greek Literary Tradition and Silius’ On Kingship

V. MARTIAL
17. MARGOT NEGER
‘Graece numquid’ ait ‘poeta nescis?’ Martial and the Greek
Epigrammatic Tradition

18. ROBERT COWAN
Fingering Cestos: Martial’s Catullus’ Callimachus

19. ANA MARIA LÓIO
Inheriting Speech: Talking Books Come To Flavian Rome

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL INDEX

INDEX LOCORUM

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Homeland Security :

“In terms of insight, intellect, and experience, Michael Chertoff is uniquely placed to undertake diagnosis and offer prescriptions for the range of contemporary dangers to our security. He addresses those threats, both man-made and natural, with a clarity of thought and conviction of purpose that provides an immense service and inspiration to all of us, far beyond the shores of his own homeland.” —John Reid, former UK Home Secretary and Defense Secretary

“A valuable tool for emergency management and homeland security practitioners in all sectors and of all levels. It addresses a wider audience by challenging policymakers to continue crafting workable solutions . . . It also provides a starting point for scholarly research. But, most important, it makes you think.” — Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

“As memories of 9/11 fade, the nation has required a tough-minded realism against growing complacency. In Michael Chertoff, the nation had a keen thinker, a straight talker, an honest broker, and a diligent doer at the head of the Department of Homeland Security. Michael Chertoff remains driven to inform and persuade. In comprehensive fashion, this book tells America and the world what we’ve been doing and what we still must do to enhance our safety and security.” —Frances M. Fragos Townsend, former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush

“Michael Chertoff offers a clear-eyed assessment of the threats we face and how to confront them. Among his good ideas are the use of soft power to project and protect America’s values, and improved efforts to prepare—rather than scare—an anxious public. In contrast to the toxic political environment that surrounded him, Chertoff’s pragmatism and lack of partisanship are on full display, and he has written a valuable primer for his very able successor.” —Representative Jane Harman (D., Calif.), chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment

“America’s response to the 9/11 tragedy was the establishment of a new Department of Homeland Security created from 22 separate federal agencies. Just about every issue imaginable came to this new department, from protecting our borders and ensuring the safety of passengers in the air from terrorist attacks to maintaining defenses against natural disasters. Michael Chertoff, only the second person to serve as secretary in this office, describes with penetrating analysis the strategy that has emerged from this huge challenge, the eyes-open risk-costs analysis that has made it manageable, and the steps that have been taken to turn this gigantic effort into a well-coordinated and effective line of defense for our citizens. What a useful gift to his new successor, former Governor Janet Napolitano.” —William Webster, chairman, Homeland Security Advisory Council, former FBI director, former CIA director

From the Publisher