Report: AT&T in on new fed cyberspying project

The Washington Post reported Friday that the Obama administration is pursuing a cybersecurity and spying program first developed during the Bush administration, and the pilot program reportedly will involve AT&T when it eventually begins. When that will happen is unclear, and the project apparently has been delayed over anti-privacy questions and at least in part because AT&T has looked for assurances from the federal government that it won't be targeted by anti-privacy lawsuits. No surprise there, considering that AT&T was among telcos that would have faced lawsuits from participating in the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program had Congress not approved telco immunity (supported by the Sen. Obama and still supported by President Obama) in that case.

But, perhaps the main question revolving around this program is how far it will go in monitoring Internet traffic. President Obama has said that such security program will not monitor private sector Internet traffic, and according to the Post report, only traffic "to or from government systems" would be monitored.

For more:
- The Washington Post has this story [1]

Related articles
Obama continued support for telco immunity after becoming President [2]
A federal judge this year ended the wiretapping lawsuit threat [3]