FBI Wants to Tap The Net

Majik was among the stream sof people submitting this story about the FBI wanting to tap the net. Makes carnivore look like a baby monitor since this tracks all packets, and would be placed at key locations on the net.

Comments

FBI just wants all the good pr0n

[kcornia]

You know that's what they're after. Hoover left a more lasting legacy than we know...

Go ahead.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to put the words anthrax, get the bomb, allah, and kill them all in every fucking packet. Let's see em sort through 800000 terabytes of crap a day.

Whoa, this is getting confusing!!!

[ekrout]

Whoa, this is getting confusing!!! What happens if an FBI agent uses a Windows machine running some packet-catching/sniffing program to "tap the 'Net"? Wouldn't this be a crime since they'd be using a terrorist-harboring operating system (see last Slashdot article) to search for terrorists? Uggghhh...

Great...

[don_carnage]

The next thing you know, they'll want control of all major routers; It's just one more step to bring the Internet under US control. Welp folks, it's time we built our own network...

Performance, price to consumers?

[weez75]

It's pretty clear that everyone is going to scream about how horrible this is for privacy. Granted, it will be frightening in its approximation of of Orwell's Big Brother but don't overlook that this will slow internet traffic down considerably. Imagine peeking in on every packet sent! Further, to accomodate this I have a feeling the cost will be passed down to you and I--the taxpaying public. I see farms of servers collecting and storing data, offices filled with high-paid IT staff and IT forensic specialists. So, to recap: bad for privacy, slows down the net, and we'll pay for the privilege of being spied on. I'll have say this isn't in our best interest...

Get in the habit of using Crypto now...

[Bonker]

And make this unfeasable for real production use.

Breaking 2048 bit DH compression on one packet or transmission is feasible, given time and a (very) powerful computer.

If the FBI were to have to crack even 2-5% of the billions of packets that went through their system, however, it would make this system completely unworkable.

Use PGP or GPG. Sign your messages. Let other people know that you prefer messages sent to you in encrypted formats. Surf and download from sites who use SSL. It's not that hard, and once you get in the habit of encrypting data, you'll feel safer and more secure.

Re:Get in the habit of using Crypto now...

[Rogerborg]

• If the FBI were to have to crack even 2-5% of the billions of packets

If even 2-5% of active voters wrote to their elected representatives telling them to knock this on the head, it would get stopped and stopped hard. That might be a more achievable goal.

So let them.

[Dr. Sp0ng]

So what? People have had the ability to listen in on network communications since the dawn of time (well, the dawn of networking, anyway :) If you have to transmit any sensitive or private information, encrypt it! Maybe this will finally get people to get off their asses and start using PGP/GPG like they should anyway.

Centralized network means single point of failure

[techmuse]

One major problem exposed by this idea is that the Internet will suddenly have a single point of failure (and slowness) where all of the packets have to go through. Do you like your Internet slow and vulnerable?

Guess no more CounterStrike for me

[Dolly_Llama]

After the FBI comes knocking at my door asking me why I always play T.

Re:always assumed this is being done

[Tackhead]

> I always though the NSA was doing this already. So why worry?

The difference is that NSA is an intelligence organization, not a law enforcement organization.

That is, NSA doesn't care about who you slept with last night, your tastes in g0at-pr0n, whether you may or may not have indulged in recreational pharmaceuticals in your misspent youth, how many MP3z and warez you download, or whether you traffic in copy control circumvention devices. Even if you assume (incorrectly) that they want to spy on US citizens, keeping track of jaywalkers is not their mandate, and they're busy enough with the stuff that is their mandate.

It is, however, entirely within the FBI's mandate, as enforcers of the law, to "sweat the small stuff". Today, they hunt terrorists with guns, when they're gone, they'll scour the database to find the terrorists with drugs, and next year, they'll start earning their keep by nailing the copyright terrorists.

Spooks have better things to do with their time. Cops don't.

This is much more sinister that it seems

[cosmosis]

As any student of history will tell you, giving the FBI this much more power fares badly for all of us. McCarthyism anyone? The first thing they are going to do is gather up information on anyone who ordered any books on any belief or activity they don't like - including drugs, computer security/hacking, anarchy, libretarianism, free-thinking, etc. So if you frequent any sites of this ilk or bought any nooks from Amazon like this you will be tagged by the FBI as a suspected terrorist.

After a while, these people will be rounded up and questioned, intimidated and possible detained. And if the current set of laws that just passed gets any worse, then you might even get jailed without due process, and incarcerated for life based on these information retrieval practices. Sound ominous so far? It should. This stuff is right in line with Nazi Germany too. Lets just hope they don't start lining us all up and shooting us because we are "terrorists, hackers, druggies", etc. Never forget that it was Orrin Hatch who called for the Death Penalty for anyone caught using drugs.

Here is the official stance

[bstrahm]

of the Internet Architecture Board on enabling wiretapping
RFC2804

So now we have the group that defines internet standards saying that requirements to implement wiretapping should not be included in protocol design discussions. That does not mean that the FBI couldn't put a BIG HONKING device in a couple of places on the internet and globally adjust all routing tables so that packets went to it... but then there is something about too much information hidding the data

You have a point

[einhverfr]

I am reminded of the NSA's escapade with taping the single fiberoptic line under the atlantic (one line tapped, of several in place). The flood of information was too much for them to do ANYTHING with.

For the FBI to pull this off, they would certainly need quantum computers... And what of speling myst-aches? This requires more computing power... Even Caeser cyphers become effective means of defeating these because of computational limits...