Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast, Episode #49: An Interview with Juan Zarate

Our guest commentator for episode 49 of the Steptoe Cyberlaw podcast is Juan Zarate, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the senior national security analyst for CBS News, a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Law School, and Chairman and Co-Founder of the Financial Integrity Network.  Before joining CSIS, Juan was the first ever assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes. We inaugurate a new headline news feature, “News or Snooze.” Some highlights:

• “EU Data Supervisor Presses for Privacy Overhaul in 2015” – Hit the snooze button and you can hear this again in 2016. And probably 2017 too.
• “New Credit Cards May Fall Short on Fraud Control” – This is news for everyone who thought we were moving to chip and pin to get better credit card security.
• “FBI Says Warrants Not Needed for Stingrays, Senators Express Doubts” – No surprises here.
• “Lyft and Uber answer Sen. Franken” – Will consumers punish Uber for its privacy woes and reward Lyft for playing nice with the Senator?  Stewart bets that they won’t.
• “Sony Hackers ‘Got Sloppy’ says FBI director” – This is news:  Jim Comey provides new evidence supporting the North Korea attribution.  Skeptics move to a new grassy knoll.
• French terror attacks: Big news for surveillance in both Europe and the US.  The ghost of Edward Snowden is starting to fade, as are prospects for dumping the NSA 215 program.

In the interview, Juan Zarate and Steptoe’s own Meredith Rathbone lead us through a bracing discussion of U.S. sanctions on North Korea for the Sony attack.  Bottom line:  the Treasury sanctions announced so far are unlikely to have much impact, but they do open the door to future approaches that could.  Juan endorses tougher OFAC sanctions for the beneficiaries of cyberespionage and international sanctions for attacks on banks.  He even has a kind word for letters of marque that would give the private sector more authority to pursue cyberattackers.  By the end, he’s demonstrated anew why we call him the Lord Byron of cyberpolicy. We remind everyone that the Podcast welcomes feedback, either by email (CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com) or voicemail (+1 202 862 5785).