Monthly Archives: April 2017

NSA Names UWF As Regional Cybersecurity Resource Center – NorthEscambia.com

Posted: April 12, 2017 at 8:23 am

The University of West Florida has been named by the National Security Agency as the National Center Academic of Excellence Cybersecurity Regional Resource Center for the Southeastern region. In this role, the UWF Center for Cybersecurity will provide leadership to advance cyber defense education among colleges and universities in the region and support new and existing CAE institutions.

UWF will serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for all institutions of higher education in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico. The University will receive a nearly $200,000 grant and will work with the NSA CAE Program Office and other regional and national hubs across the country to enhance cybersecurity education and expand the CAE Program across the nation.

This prestigious designation recognizes the excellent and innovative programs offered by the UWF Center for Cybersecurity, UWF President Martha D. Saunders said. Our selection as a regional resource center recognizes the leadership role that Dr. Eman El-Sheikh and her team have taken in this vital area. UWF has developed a number of partnerships with key players in the field of cybersecurity that prepare our students for successful careers.

The CAE-Cyber Defense Program Office named six CAE institutions as CAE Regional Resource Centers, as well as four CAE National Resource Centers and four CAE Consultation Resource Centers across the nation.

In May 2016, the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security designated UWF as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The National Centers of Academic Excellence program seeks to reduce vulnerability in the nations information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and increasing the number of professionals with cyber defense expertise.

We are honored to serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for the Southeast, said Dr. Eman El-Sheikh, UWF Center for Cybersecurity director. Building on our successes and partnerships, UWF will lead efforts to advanced cybersecurity education and expand the cybersecurity workforce. We will work to increase the number of CAE designated institutions in the Southeast and also provide support and resources to existing CAE institutions.

This will include cybersecurity program development support, faculty professional development activities, and enhancing research and education collaborations among Southeast institutions. Our mission is highly rewarding: build a strong cybersecurity community to advance education, workforce development and innovation in the Southeast and nationally.

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Ex-NSA bug bounty startup Synack lands $21m, eyes Australia for growth – CSO Australia

Posted: at 8:23 am

Cybersecurity startup Synack has secured $21 million from Microsoft, HPE and Singtel to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

Synack, founded by two former NSA analysts, is looking to expand its crowd-sourced bug hunting platform in the APAC region on the back of $21.25 million it just raised in a series C round led by Microsoft Ventures, and joined by HPE and Singtels venture arm, Singtel Innov8.

Synack launched in 2013 to help organizations find and close new bugs in web sites by offering cash incentives to its closed network of whitehat hackers. The Synack Red Team offers a private, managed crowdsourced security testing service to organizations. The system differs from Googles vulnerability rewards programs, which permit anyone from the public to report vulnerabilities in its software.

The new round brings Synacks total raised to over $55m from backers that include GV, the venture arm of Google parent, Alphabet.

Synack said APAC has been clamoring for new cybersecurity innovation and will be entering the region to meet that demand.

The company says local hackers and businesses will see more attention from the company as a result of the funds.

"Australia is definitely a market of interest to Synack," said to Synack CEO and co-founder Jay Kaplan in an email to CSO Australia.

"We already have a number of Australian companies reaching out to us and we will pursue those. We also have a number of Australian hackers on the Synack Red Team. We attended Ruxcon for the last couple of years and will continue to recruit hackers, and customers, in Australia."

Synack's chief R&D officer Patrick Wardle, who specializes in Apple Mac hacking, spoke at the Melbourne Ruxcon conference in 2016 about reverse engineering Apple's desktop kernel and I/O kit drivers.

The company is also looking grow its network of hackers in Europe to meet an expected uptick in demand from organizations racing to comply with the EUs General Data Protection Regulation deadlines, which comes into effect in May 2018.

The security company says it allows customers to take an offensive approach to security.

The best defense is a good offense. Businesses can only stay one step ahead of the adversary by beating them at their own game, said Kaplan.

Bringing Microsoft Ventures, HPE and Singtel Innov8 on board highlights their ongoing investment in security for their products and customers. We have a shared vision for the future of cybersecurity and see a huge opportunity for alignment in platform development and scaling channels to market.

The US Department of Defense recently awarded the security firm and fellow third-party bounty service provider, HackerOne, a deal to run a contract system to allow different parts of DoD to launch their own bug bounty challenges.

This followed the completion of the DoDs Hack the Pentagon pilot bounty, which tested new ways the agency could contract for services. The pilot attracted 1,400 hackers and resulted in 138 previously undisclosed or zero-day flaws being discovered.

Venture capitalists have poured tens of millions of dollars into bug bounty service providers over the past year, eyeing growth in demand for third-party cybersecurity testing services as competition for cybersecurity skills heats up among traditional businesses that are building online assets.

HackerOne raised US$40 million in Series C in February, and Sydney-founded Bugcrowd raised US$15 million in Series B last April. HackerOne on Monday announced plans to new offices in Germany and the UK, and plans to boost its engineering team in the Netherlands.

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NSA awards UWF Center for Cybersecurity with designation – Pensacola News Journal

Posted: at 8:23 am

Joseph Baucum , jbaucum@pnj.com Published 8:00 a.m. CT April 10, 2017 | Updated 11:16 a.m. CT April 10, 2017

University of West Florida students Ian Briggs, left, and Jessica Aguilar work on a computer program in the Battle Lab at UWF on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo

The University of West Florida's role inevolving the Southeastas a power in cybersecurity workforcedevelopment will soon expand exponentially.

In a joint sponsorship betweenthe National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, the university's Center for Cybersecurity has been designated as the National Center Academic of Excellence (CAE) Regional ResourceCenter for the Southeast region.

Only six institutions were given the regional designation. As part of the honor, the universitywill serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for all colleges and universities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico.

"The goal of the National Security Agencys CAE office is to increase the number of qualified cybersecurity professionals by expanding the number of CAE institutions," said Eman El-Sheikh, director of theCenter for Cybersecurity."Our missionwill be to provide leadership to do that in the Southeast."

The university plans to host workshops and professional development activities in the local area and across the region in its role as a resource center. They include a CAE mentor and peer reviewer workshop in June at theNational Cyber Summit in Huntsville, Alabama, andaworkshop on securingsoftware development for faculty in Pensacola in the fall. It will alsocreate an online resource portal thatcolleges and universities in the Southeast can access.

At left, Dustin Mink, University of West Florida assistant director of the Center for Cybersecurity, and student Nathan Earley talk on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in the UWF Battle Lab.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

With cyberattacksescalatingastechnology advances, a qualifiedworkforce in cybersecurity is critical. According to the Department of Homeland Security's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies, aboutone out of every five Americans havebeen victimized by cybercrime. Cyberattacks also cost the average U.S. company more than $15.4 million annually.

To ensure enough qualified professionals exist, El-Sheikh said the National Security Agency's goal is to increase the number of CAE institutions across the country. More than 200 colleges and universities across the U.S. and Puerto Ricoare already designated as a CAE based on their degree programs and close alignment to specific cybersecurity-related criteria and curriculum.

But a substantial amount more could benefit from earning the designation.

"Currently less than 5 percent of institutions have it, and in our world, that designation is a gold star," El-Sheikh said.

Martha Saunders, University of West Florida president, expects the university'sdesignation as a CAE Regional Resource Center to further its mission of being a community resource. She anticipatescybersecurity to change and be redefined dozens of times over the next few years, but she saidas changes in the industryoccur, the university will always play a handin developing the kind of workforce that is needed.

"There are lots of centers for cybersecurity across the U.S. that could have been picked, but they chose us," she said of the CAE Regional Resource Center designation. "I find that encouragingnot just for the university, but for the whole community."

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Pakistan, India cannot remain enemies forever: Pak NSA Nasser Janjua – Economic Times

Posted: at 8:23 am

ISLAMABAD: Accusing India of "defeating the spirit of bilateralism" by defying talks over the Kashmir issue, Pakistan's National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua has said that the two neighbours "cannot remain enemies forever" and they need to engage and resolve their disputes.

Janjua's remarks comes against the backdrop of spike in Indo-Pak tensions over the death sentence awarded to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court and New Delhi's warning to Islamabad to consider the consequences on bilateral ties if he is hanged.

Pakistan's NSA claimed that the international community is overlooking Kashmir issue due to their own strategic interests related to India.

"Although India considers Kashmir a bilateral issue, it has defeated the spirit of bilateralism by defying any dialogue over it," Janjua said while speaking to Canadian High Commissioner Perry Calderwood yesterday.

"Extreme thoughts are to be mitigated through a change of perception, by winning hearts and minds and not by use of force alone," he said, referring to the situation in Kashmir.

"We need to engage with each other and resolve disputes," Janjua was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

"Pakistan and India cannot remain enemies forever," he said, amid a strain in Indo-Pak ties.

Janjua and Calderwood discussed regional dynamics and bilateral ties, Pakistan's role in eradicating terrorism, counter-terrorism cooperation, the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and Pakistan-India relations with reference to the US' offer for mediation.

Janjua also underscored the need for a non-discriminatory approach while considering Pakistan's membership for elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

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The judge in the Alphabet/Uber lawsuit rejects a Fifth Amendment … – Recode

Posted: at 8:22 am

The presiding judge in Alphabets lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing autonomous-car trade secrets has said that Uber must disclose certain basic details of a due diligence report conducted as part of Ubers August 2016 acquisition of self-driving tech startup Otto.

The report could play an important role in Alphabets allegations that the ride-hail company is using Alphabets proprietary self-driving technology.

The Google parent company claims that Ubers self-driving head, Anthony Levandowski, stole 14,000 files from Alphabet that included designs for its lidar Light Detection and Ranging technology. Lidar is key to most self-driving systems.

Uber counters that its technology is unique and distinct from that used in Alphabets self-driving efforts, which exist under the umbrella of an Alphabet subsidiary, Waymo.

A due diligence report is conducted by a third party as part of an acquisition. It looks at finances, legal issues and other details of a company that is being acquired.

Alphabet has claimed that the due diligence report will prove that Levandowski who worked on self-driving technology for Alphabet before leaving and co-founding self-driving trucking company Otto stole the files. Theres a question of whether the report included a review of any of the allegedly stolen documents. And if Alphabet knew who compiled the report, the company could subpoena them.

Last week, Levandowski filed a motion requesting that details of the due diligence report including the identity of the party that conducted the report not be disclosed in Alphabets suit.

Levandowski is not named as a party in the lawsuit, and is retaining his own attorneys, who filed the motion on his behalf. Uber did not sign on to the motion.

Judge William Alsup ordered that the report be included in the privilege log a list of documents that a party in a lawsuit argues should not be opened up to the court because they contain privileged information that Uber must compile. The judge is not at this time requiring that the report be opened up to the court, but is ordering it to be included in that list without basic details redacted.

There will be time enough to argue soon over whether the due diligence report itself must be produced, Alsups order said. But for now that report must be put on a privilege log in the conventional way without any of the redactions requested by counsel for Levandowski.

Levandowskis attorneys argued that revealing details of the report would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because the document details might furnish a link in a chain of possible incrimination.

At risk of repetition, the very purpose of a privilege log is to allow a fair way to test a claim of privilege, Alsups order said. That traditional privilege log requirements should be verboten merely because they might connect the dots back to a non-party in a possible criminal investigation is a sweeping proposition under which all manner of mischief could be concealed.

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Immigration Fact and Fiction: What is Left of Fourth Amendment … – The National Law Review

Posted: at 8:22 am

As mentioned in a priorblog post, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can conduct searches of individualsdepartingthe United States, a fact that many are not aware of. In fact, the rule that failure to declare monetary instruments in amounts of or over $10,000 can result in its seizure is applicable to departure and CBP has confiscated funds from individuals who did not make the proper declaration as recently as two months ago after conducting an ad hoc inspection in a departure lounge at Newark Liberty Airport.

Well, what if CBP confiscates an I-Phone from an individual about to depart the United States, at an airport, without a warrant, and the individual is convicted of criminal charges partially based upon information obtained from that I-Phone. That is the question raised inU.S. v. Hamza Kolsuzin the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

We discussed in a priorblog posthow CBP relies on the Border Search Exception cited inCarroll v. United States 267 U.S. 132 (1925)concluding that it is reasonable to conduct such border searches without a warrant given national security interests. In addition, individuals have a lesser expectation of privacy when they seek entry into the United States at a port of entry.

However, the intrusive nature of confiscating a smartphone is quite different, and this issue is addressed with reference to searches in the interior of the United States inRiley v. California, 134 S.Ct. 2473 (2014). The Court indicated that smart phones are such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude that they were an important feature of human autonomy. The Court found that given how cell phones contained in many instances the digital sum total of ones papers and effects, police searches would be unreasonable unless a warrant had been obtained.

The Hamza Kolsuz case addresses the question whether an end run around the Fourth Amendment can be made when the confiscation takes place at a border, in this case, while the individual was seeking to depart the United States.

In the interim, CBP continues to conduct searches and under appropriate circumstances, confiscate or detains laptops and smart phones as they deem necessary.

In CBP Directive Number 3340-049 dated August 20, 2009 and reviewed August 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection outlines its policy with regard to handling sensitive information.

CBP indicates that it might confront materials that appear to be legal in nature or an individual may assert that certain information is protected by attorney-client or attorney work product privilege. CBP takes the position that such materials may not necessarily be exempt from a Border search, but consultation with a senior officer may be necessary.

It addresses other sensitive information, such as medical records and work-related information carried by journalists, which should be handled in accordance with any applicable federal law and CBP policy.

It also addresses business or commercial information which may be sensitive or governed by the Trade Secrets Act, Privacy Act, and other laws.

At the end of the day, you will have little opportunity to discuss, debate or persuade while an inspection for admission to the United States is conducted, and you therefore may want to take necessary precautions as we described in our recentblog post.

The litigation in the Hamza case may eventually bring some clarity as CBP will be pressed and challenged as to this very sensitive issue.

The Knight First Amendment Institute of Columbia University went to court to enforce a request under the Freedom of Information Act, to provide statistics and policy records with reference to how many electronic devices CBP had been searched or confiscated at the border.

Finding the right balance between privacy rights and the security needs of the nation will continue at our ports of entry to be an elusive goal.

2017 Proskauer Rose LLP.

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Will The Supreme Court Hear A Second Amendment Case This Year? – America’s 1st Freedom (press release) (blog)

Posted: at 8:21 am

Neil Gorsuch, newly sworn in as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, is taking his seat at a busy time for the court. Beginning this week, the Court will meet in conference to decide what cases it will hear in the near future, and the future of the right to keep and bear arms could depend on the outcome.

In the Peruta case, which is one of the cases up for consideration this week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals originally concluded in a 2-1 decision that San Diego County is violating the constitutional rights of residents by not recognizing self-defense as a valid reason to acquire a concealed-carry license. The judges found that the denial of a concealed-carry license, coupled with Californias ban on the open carrying of firearms, amounts to an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. However, that decision was overturned by a broader panel of judges on the 9th Circuit. In the en banc decision, the 9th Circuit held that there is no Second Amendment right to carry a concealed firearm in public. What about the open carry ban? The en banc review claimed that the question was beyond the scope of the lawsuit and would require additional litigation before the constitutionality of an open carry ban could be addressed.To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense described in Heller and McDonald.

If the Supreme Court doesnt agree to hear Peruta, then the en banc decision will remain in force throughout the western states that comprise the 9th Circuit. A new challenge to the states open carry ban has been filed, but it will be years before it gets to the Supreme Court for an appeal. In the meantime, millions of Americans will have their Second Amendment rights curtailed by a court that refuses to examine the real question: Do we have a right to bear arms for self-defense outside of the home?

Increasing the chances that the Supreme Court might hear Peruta is the fact that there is a significant split among the courts of appeals on the issue of bearing arms for self-defense outside of the home. In Moore v. Madigan, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded: A Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower. A woman who is being stalked or has obtained a protective order against a violent ex-husband is more vulnerable to being attacked while walking to or from her home than when inside. She has a stronger self-defense claim to be allowed to carry a gun in public than the resident of a fancy apartment building (complete with doorman) has a claim to sleep with a loaded gun under her mattress. But Illinois wants to deny the former claim, while compelled by McDonald to honor the latter. That creates an arbitrary difference. To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense described in Heller and McDonald.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan decided not to appeal the 7th Circuits decision to the Supreme Court, and instead the state moved to adopt a shall-issue concealed-carry law (Its interesting to note that Illinois didnt adopt a law similar to Californias, even though anti-gun sentiment runs strong in the state legislature). If the Supreme Court had the chance to consider this case back in 2013, perhaps the Peruta case would be superfluous. Its not. Its the best chance the Supreme Court will have in years to put to rest the idea that the right to keep and bear arms exists only inside the home. Lets hope with the addition of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court that there are four justices ready to vote to hear the case.

Cam Edwards is the host of Cam & Co., which airs live 2-5 p.m. EST on NRATV and midnight EST on SiriusXM Patriot 125.He lives with his family on a small farm near Farmville, Va. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @camedwards.

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San Francisco Tries End-Run Around Second Amendment … – American Free Press

Posted: at 8:21 am

The City by the Bayon behalf of Californiasues mom and pop firearms accessories companies across the country.Dylan Saunders, owner of one such shop,7.62 Precision, is fighting back.

By Dave Gahary

San Francisco officials recently made news for vowing to protect undocumented (read: illegal) immigrants by refusing to order local law enforcement to assist in enforcing federal immigration law and sued the Trump administration over its order to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities. Now they have a new target in theirsights: the Second Amendment.

Dennis J. Herrera, first elected city attorney of San Francisco in 2001, is the most well-known champion of same-sex marriage in the Golden State. Today, he wants to make a name for himself by capitalizing onthe many alleged massacres that have been frothily reported by the fake news media.

A week after his attack on the presidents plan to rein in the rampant illegal immigration, Herrera filed suit on Feb. 9 against five named and 50 unnamed companies selling magazine repair kits to California residents, who have had their Second Amendment rights severely limited by gun control-crazy politicians.

Magazine repair or rebuild kits are new magazines that have been opened, disassembled, and packaged for shipping and are used to repair existing magazines, create limited-capacity magazines, or otherwiseassembled and used in accordance with local laws and restrictions.

On the first page of the 34-page complaint, the lawsuit evokes several so-called massacres that have ostensibly occurred in this country over the past decade.

American Free Press sat down with the owner of one of the five named companies, Alaska-based 7.62 Precision, to discuss the lawsuit.

Dylan Saunders, who grew up in Alaska mostly in bush villages without electricity or running water and spent some time in the U.S. Army as a cavalry scout and later as a sniper in an infantry unit, livesin Wasilla, Alaska, where former Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor for six years.

I was injured in Iraq and came back trying to figure out how to support my family, Dylan told AFP. So I started doing what I knew, and that was working with firearms as a way to try to pay the bills.

Listen to AFPs interview with Dylan Saunders by clicking the image below:

He added, Several weeks ago I was very surprised to get a knock at my door at about 10:30 in the evening and receive a summons stating that I was being sued.

Saundersexplained how he got tangled up in this lawsuit.

California some years ago passed a law that prohibited most people in California from purchasing what they call a large capacity magazine, which would be anything larger than 10 rounds, Saunders explained. In the language of that law, they clearly allowed for magazine repair kits to be sold to residents of California, in order to keep grandfathered magazines working. Magazines are consumable items in firearms. They wear out, and theyre usually one of the first components to wear out. So, in order to keep a firearm running you need to be able to repair your magazines since they couldnt replace them.

When California banned magazine repair kits a few years ago, Saunders stopped selling them.

However, Herreras legal staff had simply accessed an old web page from Saunderss website, where ordering the kits is impossible. Once publishedon the World Wide Web,all pages remain accessible, even pages and websites that no longer exist.

Had they simply called me and asked if they could order one from me or even called me and told me that it was the attorney for the city of San Francisco, Saunders said, I wouldve been willing to prove to him that I was not selling these kits and had not intended for that page to be visible. But instead of getting that, they simply sued.

Saunders suspects there is another agenda at play here.

Its pretty obvious that their intent is not to keep people from selling magazine kits in the state of California. Their intention is to attack firearms companies and try to put them out of business, Saunders said. Thats why theyre using lawsuits rather than criminal charges. In the case of criminal charges, they would have to prove that a crime had been committed, while they can bring a lawsuit and hope to bankrupt a company without actually having to win the lawsuit, without having to provide proof. A lot of companies would just fold as a result.

Instead of folding, Saunders fought back, by tapping into what is called crowdfunding, by which a project (in this case, legal fees) is funded by raising money collectively from a large number of people across the world.

These guys were going to get a default judgment if I couldnt retain a law firm, so what I did was I established a GoFundMe campaign, Saunders explained. I was blown away that people from all over the United States jumped in. I think it was less than a week wed raised $10,000, which was our goal.

Saunders has retained a top-notch law firm thanks to the donations, and is still overwhelmed by the support.

We had people donating hundreds of dollars, he said. I was expecting that people would donate $15, $20, $25, and maybe some people would go big and donate $50, but I was just blown away by the support, both monetary and by people sending messages and saying, Were pulling for you in this. It really says something about our country and about shooters across the country.

Dave Gahary, a former submariner in the U.S. Navy, prevailed in a suit broughtby the New York Stock Exchange in an attempt to silence him.

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ACLU Trolls Trump With First Amendment Billboards | The … – Huffington Post

Posted: at 8:21 am

The American Civil Liberties Union is sending a powerful, multilingual message to President Donald Trump about civil rights by postingthe First Amendment in English, Spanish and Arabic on billboards across the country.

The goal of its We the People campaign is to send a message to Trump that Americans rights particularly those of immigrants, Latinx and Muslims are protected by the Constitution.

Trump came to power on a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, and it was particularly bad when it came to Muslims, ACLU communications staffer Stacy Sullivan told The Huffington Post. We thought this would be a good time to remind the public and Trump that the First Amendment applies to Muslims and Latinos, and everyone else in this country, too.

The First Amendment protects peoples right to practice their religion without facing discrimination. It also protects free speech, a free press and the right to protest.

The signs simply write out the language of the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The first signs went up last week in Times Square in New York, as well as at 30 bus stops in Washington, D.C. Another billboard went up in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The group is aiming to put up more signs in other cities and in other languages in the coming months, Sullivan said.

The ACLU chose to post the signs in Spanish and Arabic specifically because American and immigrant communities that speak those languages particularly the Muslim and Latinx communities are not only numerous in the U.S. but also are most under threat, said Sullivan.

The Trump administration has targeted Muslims with two executive orders barring travel from Muslim-majority countries which have both been blocked by the courts and Latinos with deportations and plans to build a wall on the Mexican border.

Its a way for us to state our solidarity with those communities under threat, Sullivan told HuffPost, and to say what [Trump is] doing is really un-American.

ACLU

While the signs are a pointed response to Trumps anti-immigrant policies, they are also a commentary on the presidents attacks on the other First Amendment freedoms: of the press, speech and protest.

Trump hascalled the media the enemy of the American people and attacked reputable media outlets, including The New York Times and CNN, bylabeling them fake news.

Trump has also criticized people who exercise their right to free speech and protest by suggesting that anyone who burns an American flag as a form of protestshould lose citizenship.

From his attempted Muslim ban to his calls for media suppression to his remarks endorsing the use of violence against those who protest against him, President Trump has shown disdain for the rights and freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a news release. We thought it was a good time to remind people of these rights.

ACLU

The We the People campaign, developed by ad agency Emergence Creative for the ACLU, is simply about sending a message to Trump that peoples rights need to be upheld and to all people in America that their rights are protected by law.

This campaign is intended to remind people that the Constitution is for all of us. It doesnt matter who you are or what language you speak, Romero said in the release. We the People means everyone.

For HuffPosts #LoveTakesAction series, were telling stories of how people are standing up to hate and supporting those most threatened. Know a story from your community? Send news tips to lovetips@huffingtonpost.com.

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RTDNA Ramping Up First Amendment Efforts – TV News Check

Posted: at 8:21 am

Dan Shelley knows that responsible, honest journalists are under heavy fire, and he wants to enlist the public to draw some of it away.

Shelley, the former SVP of digital content strategy for iHeartMedia, who takes over from the retiring Mike Cavender as executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association this September, is working with a new First Amendment Task Force inside the organization to help do that. It plans to meet with leaders of TV and radio station groups at the NAB Show April 22-27 to set priorities and public messaging.

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In this interview with TVNewsCheck's special projects editor, Michael Depp, he talks about the strong stand that the task force is looking to make against assaults on the First Amendment and press access to government. He says honing a public message to that end is among the top priorities, along with emphasizing the particularly important work being done by local journalists.

An edited transcript:

Generally speaking, how do you see the threat level facing the First Amendment and press freedom at this moment?

Were forming our Voice of the First Amendment Task Force because its clear over the last couple of years that there has been an unprecedented attack on responsible journalism from all over the political spectrum, from all parts of the country, because of the increasingly divisive environment that exists in our country today.

Because things have become so polarized, responsible journalism has really taken an unfair hit. And so thats why in conjunction with radio, television and digital news industry influencers and executives, were making what we believe will be a very strong stand in defense of responsible journalism and to help the public understand better why it matters in their lives.

Media companies are doing, by and large, an outstanding job of calling the balls and strikes, keeping their noses down and not backing down when confronted with resistance from government officials and folks who dont want the public to know the real story. In many cases [journalists are] risking persecution, prosecution and jail time to make sure the public has access to the truth and knows whats going on in their communities.

To what extent is President Trump a factor?

It depends on whom you ask. Every time he or one of his surrogates uses the term fake news to counter a responsible news story that they just dont like, it certainly doesnt help our reputation with people who tend to believe as they do.

Its certainly a significant portion of the issue, but that in and of itself is not a problem. For years, the news media have not been held in the highest esteem, probably since the days following Watergate.

What are the task force's priorities?

Priority one is to work with members of our industry to make sure that they help us hone our message so that when we go to the public we can highlight responsible journalism on the national and particularly the local level because so many times all of the news media gets wrapped up in the same package with the same bow on it. That includes local journalists, who are exposing issues and problems that otherwise would not see the light of day. That exposure leads to solutions in many cases.

Sunlight always is the best antiseptic for corruption. RTDNA pledges to do a much better job of highlighting examples of where that works. We have always been a very strong voice and fierce advocate of the First Amendment and FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] issues.

With public mistrust of the media at an all-time high, how can the public be better enlisted to stand with the news media? What can media companies be doing more aggressively there?

We are fairly deep into the process of formulating plans to make sure that members of the public understand that when the local TV, radio or digital journalist is asking hard questions, its not because they want to be difficult or belligerent in any way, its because they want members of the community to know whats going on around them and shed more light.

Whats the message that the public needs to hear vis--vis press freedom?

The message they need to hear is that all journalists are doing their jobs, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to make sure that members of the public are part of a more informed and educated society that will help them make even better decisions and tangible improvements in their communities.

President Trump has flirted with revising libel laws in his tweets. Whats the appropriate response to those threats for now?

Theres only so much in reality that a president can do. There is no federal libel law. So its got to be a state-by-state basis. So wherever there is a movement in any state to change libel laws, thats a big First Amendment problem for us, and we, along with other journalism organizations and leaders and influencers in our industry, are willing and prepared to fight those efforts as best we possibly can. Thats an extreme danger to the First Amendment.

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RTDNA Ramping Up First Amendment Efforts - TV News Check

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