DHS use of deep packet inspection technology in new net security system raises serious privacy questions

To protect the federal civilian agencies against cyberthreats, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to deploy a  more powerful version of its EINSTEIN intrusion-detection system thats supposed to detect attacks and malware, especially associated with e-mail. But since this version of EINSTEIN is acknowledged by DHS to be able to read electronic content, its raising privacy concerns.

The DHS recognizes there are privacy implications and just issued a privacy impact assessment report about what it calls EINSTEIN 3 Accelerated, the intrusion detection and prevention system expected to be made available as a managed security service from ISPs to monitor the .gov traffic to and from civilian agencies and Executive Branch departments, such as Treasury. DHS says EINSTEIN 3 may collect personally identifiable information (PII)  in some instances where this network security system will not just monitor but also prevent threats by blocking traffic in order to detect a cyberthreat or potential cyberthreat.