Online Monitoring Scheme Bad News for Security, Opponents Say

Government efforts to allow law enforcement to intercept all online communications would dramatically weaken Internet companies’ ability to secure their infrastructure, opponents say.

A government task force is working on legislation that would penalize companies such as Google and Facebook that failed to heed court-issued wiretapping orders presented by law enforcement, The Washington Post reported on Monday. Failing to provide the data would result in court-levied fines starting at 10s of thousands of dollars. After 90 days, unpaid fines would double daily.