Slashdot Mirror
Government Internet Surveillance Up
Harvey Manfrenjensenton writes "According to this story at Newhouse News Service, the assault on Americans' rights known as the Patriot Act, passed by Congress in October, has produced results that are as disturbing -- and rampant -- as could have been anticipated. Law enforcement used to need a court order to tap your phone, read your mail, etc. Now they just need a whim. ISP's and Telcos can barely keep up with the volume of requests by Feds wanting to read your email." EFF's analysis of the Patriot Act is good reading.
I run my own mailserver
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: "He who would sacrifice a little bit of liberty in exchange for any amount of safety does not deserve either."
"USA PATRIOT" is an acronym, and a misnomer at that. Lowercasing it only hides this fact, the proper name is capitalized.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
Lookie the troll!
This bill or whatchacallit is never going to be repealed. It is and will continue to be yet another heartstring connected to the american public. Compare to the following idea. How many laws are passed "in the interest of protecting our children"? While helping to ensure the well being of those we love and protect, laws that are marketed on the basis of bait and switch have the potential for going too far morally and perhaps constitutionally. And that it what IMO we could be seeing.
Surely the feds could quite easily gain some sort of access to put packet sniffers on an isp's network and read anyones email, without the need to ask the ISP's or Telco's.
If they can't I'd be very surprised.
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. -- Homer J. Simpson
Hmm, we're only a little over 18 years behind Big Brother's forcasted schedule...Next we'll have video cameras on top of our computer monitors and TV screens...
What's that on top my monitor? A Web Cam! NOOOOOOOO! It has begun.
Wow. I thought the whole "patriot act" thing was a joke.
Don't forget to register as a patriot!
Monstromart: Where shopping is a baffling ordeal
America is the land of individualism and extremism. You can't just have a little, you want the whole enchilada, and who cares if anyone else goes hungry. So it's no suprise that the government, given a little power, immediately begins to abuse it. In America, we abuse everything -- food, drugs, the law, other people, etc. We lionize the "rogue cop who doesn't play by the rules," yet this is the guy grabbing us on the street and shaking us down for ID for no good reason. People think, hey I've got an important job to do, so it's OK if I stretch the rules. So of course the FBI and other law-enforcement types will do that. I remember reading an article about the cameras that they put all over England, and how the people who run them have a deep respect for the authority they are wielding and the limits they are supposed to respect. In the US, there's no way those guys would have any restraint. OK, so I'm ranting, but the point is, that the US culture does not lend itself to granting a great degree of unchecked power to any group, be it government, corporate, whatever.
Robotiq.com is heavily tested on animals
Because everybody has inherent human dignity. And part of that dignity is a right to keep your affairs your own. Also, I feel obligated to point out that the Bill of Rights and Constitution were written a *tad* before there was an internet. Oh, and let's not forget, a small group of people called the Supreme Court say we have a right to privacy. For some reason I trust them over an anonymous coward. If you fear terrorists so much that you'd let the government read your email, than truly you are a coward. We still live in an era where human life should have some meaning or value. Get used to it. Fascist. "Those who would sacrifice their liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." That's from your founding father. Why don't you read the Constitution before you start thumping it.
There was oposition if i remember... but also much unscruplous use of the "terrorist fear"...
Now USA will have some more police state laws to overrule! And we all know how "easy" is that...
AC comments get piped to
At first I thought it was wierd that there was no "OBVIOUS" tag in front of this headline. Then I realized this isn't FARK...
"It's comin' back around again..." -RATM
Lazy...
To QUOTE Benjamin Franklin:
"He who would sacrifice a little essential liberty for a little safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
...Bitch.
YOU can get your permit, but can you get your education? I will always allow you to read my email if you are willing to crack my encryption.
:D
If you intercept my signal and crack my encryption, then you deserve to read my meaningless email.
Bomb. Revolt. Overthrow. Just a few keywords to keep em busy
No, they still need a judge to issue a warrant in order to read your e-mail. The article is about things that do not need a warrant, which includes who is sending you mail and who you are sending mail.
The telephone companies and the post office have been giving out this information for decades without a warrant.
If I feel like e-mailing my friend that "his midnight plutonium shipment to pier 27 will be delayed until 1:30am" just for the heck of it, can I? Or will the feds knock my door down within 10 minutes?
Well said, but I prefer:
Reading random quotes by activists and great thinkers can be very enlightening, I highly recommend The Quotations Page, providing quotes since 1994 - quite inspiring.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
They have been able to push each and every pet policy of theirs in the name of "homeland security" and patriotism.
Quoting Samuel Johnson, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
S
I just wish I could convince my friends to use PGP when sending me email. That would solve most of the problems.
The FDA and OSHA will be on your ass within days. Prepare to file a boatload of forms to get your face-grating facility up to code. You can forget about using that rusty grater, that's for sure.
Findlaw - Rights Retained by the People
(emphasis added)
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
What the French philosopher Rousseau said was true at the time (during the Industrial Revolution), and apparently it still is.
"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What can make it legitimate?"
Connect from host: departmentjustice02.erols.com/208.58.140.194 to TCP port: 21
I don't run an ftp server, never advertised one, never been into any sort of warez, just have a mail server. And I see that in my logs. What the fuck is going on?
the company that hosts my email is in taiwan, try and catch me coppers!
Photos.
I'm pretty sure that all of these ISPs got instructions from the Feds not to tell anyone about these requests. I know they wouldn't have a legal leg to stand on, but I'd worry about being harassed by the justice department for talking about this stuff to the press, which someone has obviously been doing. This is especially true if the CIA gets involved; they can be pretty vindictive.
The proposal, made by Albert Gidari (An "expert" on technology law who represents people? There are names for experts who represent people. To call them an "expert" implies a certain nonbias.) that ISPs need to be held indemnified for violating your privacy if the government asks them too, is an insult.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
He who would sacrifice a little bit of liberty in exchange for any amount of safety does not deserve either.
This isn't about liberty, it's about privacy and convenience.
Quoting Ambrose Bierce, "with respect to Mr. Johnson, I submit that it is the first."
"This is a Hollywood movie: when it comes to the Laws of Physics, they're lucky if they get Gravity!" --- my wife
That's an important point, there almost wasn't a Bill of Rights. When you make a list, even if you disclaim it with an entry that says that it isn't all inclusive, people will assume that the other rights just aren't as important. Part of the group that wrote the consitution didn't want a list, but the other part that eventually won, knew that if things were left to ambigous, it would be taken as license to do whatever the government wanted to do.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I didn't notice any increased surviellance.
Hey...if they wanna see my nudie pic collection...that's their business...it's not like I encrypt the fucking things.
Where do you draw the line?
Why the hell is there a space? If it's an acroynm, shouldn't it be written "USAPATRIOT"?
Thanks for those resources...I'll consult them in the future...but not when I'm lynxing it. ;-D
I just have to say that the nic Harvey Manfrenjensenton is awesome! I haven't seen A Fish Called Wanda in a long time.
So basically, screw privacy and due process, we have evil commie spies ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H excuse me, terrorists to ferret out!
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
What we need is a real technological solution, not a political solution
to prevent this intrusion of our privacy - and even more it should be
something doable in the USA and not rely on over-seas servers, because
that is only a short term solution that could bend to political and
military pressure. Even more importantly, it should be an infrastructure
where we can engage in commerce and transactions in a fair way without 3rd
party intervention or involvement. The solution should be indistinguishable
from other random and legitimate communication, verify-able for accountability, but untraceable to defend against coercive force.
Quoting Ambrose Bierce, "With all due respect to an enlightened lexicographer, I submit that it is the first."
pitty the crack smoking moderations said it was a troll.
A few things I found noteworthy...
The amount of subpoenas that carriers receive today is roughly doubling every month -- we're talking about hundreds of thousands of subpoenas for customer records
...HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!!! There are hundreds of thousands of suspected terrorists or people with involvement in terrorist activities in the US each month??
"The war on terrorism is basically a war of intelligence," Scowcroft said. "Every time they move, every time they get money or spend money, there's a trace, somewhere. What we need to do is get as many of those traces as we can and put them together into a mosaic which will allow us to uncover the al-Qaida network."
It seems to me that the full power of the US intelligence community has had more than enough time to uncover terrorist organizations operating in the US. I understand that it is much, much more difficult to conduct investigations in other countries, but the domestic investigations are getting ridiculous. What is really disturbing, is the way that the "al-Qaida network" is turning into a real-life Immanuel Goldstein....and we must take any and all measures to find him, no matter what it takes.
This ties in wonderfully with the brilliant idea from the Feds to use Microsoft Passport. One really bad idea deserves a companion.
You say the Supreme Court declares there's a right to privacy? Well, considering that this is the same institution that (pick your flamebait) that promulgated the Dred Scott decision, Plessy vs. Ferguson (separate but equal), asserted corporations were citizens with equal protection under the law, approved forced sterilization of the retarded, and upheld the internment of the Japanese on the West Coast, I wouldn't be basing my claims on such a suspect source.
Quoting from the article:
"The problem that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face is not insufficient information -- "they are choking on information," Dempsey said. The deficiency is in targeting and analysis. The Patriot Act was based on "the assumption if you pour more data into the system, then the picture would become clearer, and I think that's a false presumption," Dempsey said."
Not only are ISPs and others having a hard time dealing with the flood of requests, but it seems Uncle Sam doesn't have the resources to crunch the data it's currently getting. This might be good in so far as it may someday make law enforcement more selective of the information they collect, or perhaps we'll all just be on file indefinately. Someday when they dig up Indiana's Arc from the storage they'll find thousands of hard drives full of emails and chat sessions.
Just my $.02
don't worry about the facts of a story. This is slashdot. Facts don't matter. Only the opinions of the editors...
How the hell does this get moderated to Troll? All outspoken political thought gets moderated to nonexistence at Slashdot. I suggest we set our browsing level to -`1, as that is where the good posts are, along with the First Post nuts.
This post is protected under the DMTA (Digital Millemium Trolling Act). It is illegal to moderate it as a troll.
I know a student here from Iran (my girlfriend has a friend dating him) almost every time he emails me (we both use Yahoo email) my browser security gets switched "on" then "off" (i have it set to warn me when switching from-to secure mode)it switches with no page change (i have to acept the changs the way i have it set)
then i go to yahoo mail....never has happend with any email except from him.
Tyrrany
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
"Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt." -Patrick Henry, June 5, 1788
This is just an excuse for spying on the US public (gee I'm glad I live in oztraya where similar legislation won't b passed for another couple of weeks). Serious terrorists use encryption, and hide their tracks. They have fake names. I'm not suggesting they can't be caught, but not that easily. The main thing the USA PATRIOT act will do will deter wannabe luser terrorists (the script-kiddies of the terrorist world), and depressed high schools from blowing things up. For a little while at least.
"I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
At Truman State University there were fliers put up for a "town meeting" to discuss the then-new Patriat Act. I don't think I'll ever forget them. They said in large words:
CANADA
Looking better than ever...
Note to self: Remember to use the Ben Franklin quote IN EVERY FREAKING STORY IN YRO to garner free mod points.
Someone h4x0r3d a wingate and is scanning for pubs. Calm down, it happens to all of us.
I know that it is against the grain here at Slashdot, but how many people here have actually read the provisions in the USA PATRIOT act? After hearing everyone on here complain and complain about it, I was sure that it was going to be a crock when I actually started analyzing it. Personally, I like almost all of the changes that the Act introduced, and I have been amazed at the clarity that the bill has.
For example:
The computer tresspass statute. This statute says that law enforcement doesn't have to get a warrant to eavesdrop on a computer tresspasser if they have the permission of the owner of the computer (very generalized). Think about what the problem was here. Somebody calls the FBI and says that a hacker had broken into their computer. The FBI could not watch what the hacker did on the computer, even with the permission of the owner of the computer, because it was assumed that it violated the privacy of the hacker. Come on. You have to admit that is pretty silly. Do you want the FBI to have to take several hours to draft and get a warrant signed in a situation such as that?
Next, much of the changes in how email is handled was changed so that the laws are the same with email as it is with telephone. It is pretty easy for the FBI to find out who you are emailing. But it takes quite a bit more work for them to actually read your email. This is congruant to the ability of the FBI to get a Pen tap/trace on a telephone to find out who you are calling, compared to requiring a warrant to actually listen in on your calls.
It is amazing to note people's perception of the DoJ. The FBI and the US Attorneys are not some huge govt. agency listening in on everyones phone calls and reading everyones email. They are an overworked, underpaid agency doing its best to combat crime within a wierd, confusing legal system. Of course they overstep their bounds sometimes, but the amount of good work that they do with the miniscule resources and respect they have is amazing.
I for one say good job!
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
Anything named the "Patriot Act" has to be bad for you. I personally am frightened everytime I hear the term "Homeland Security" reminds me too much of being in Nazi Germany, or Oceania.
"Those who sell their liberty for security are understandable, if pitiable, creatures. "Those who sell the liberty of others for wealth, power, or even a moment's respite deserve only the end of a rope." -Patrick Henry
I love Ben Franklin. If you haven't read his autobiography yet, do it.
My question is, how does reducing privacy sacrifice liberty? Is it possible to be both free and less-private?
Might we be less afraid of each-other if we had less privacy and knew more about each-other? How many laws are inspired by fear of the unknown?
I do know that I would prefer freedom to privacy. Secure the first, and you won't have to worry about the second.
What have they asked you for lately ?
;) Yeah, I know /. is not a telco or ISP but I'll bet Someone has asked you for Something by now.
I'm not joking
Anyone else here feel safe enough to post 'anonymous' or otherwise on what they have been asked for ?
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
Has anyone else noticed this quote showing up a lot? I havn't
And this is only the edge of the iceberg!
I stole this Sig
If you ever figure out how to do that let us all know. Its been mulled over for several years now.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
If you read the following quote from the article: "The subpoenas are beginning to impose a financial burden on companies"
When companies start complaining, the government usually listens.
--
"I'm surfin the dead zone
In the twilight, unknown"
They have been doing this for years, with the postal system. There is something called a mail cover. Essentially, a law enforcement agency submits a request to the postal inspector to have mail monitored for a recipient. While they do not physically open the mail, they do keep track of who is sending and recieving mail, and general information that can be discovered about the contents of the mail from without. This is done without court order and with no particular oversight. Furthermore, you don't have the right to know if this is being done, nor does it need to be brought up at trial should it be used as an evidence gathering technique.
so what? a lot of other "important" people have said a lot of other things. who cares that he said this! he could have said anything. i think he was wrong personally! and so do my constituents!
Pretty soon we'll have to have microchips embedded into our bodies telling the "man" when and where we take a shit.
theyre going to watch our every move now? how pathetic can you get?
doesnt this violate some kind of right to privacy or something?
gaaaaaaaaay
What actually caused the Bill of Rights to be realized was a populist movement that demanded it. Madison was initially opposed to a Bill of Rights, but then became convinced of its necessity and subsequently rode that populist wave to successfully include it.
This strife between the writers of the Constitution and the general population is a historical fact that has been typically elided in our conventional, mythological view of the supposed infallibility and unsullied motives of the "Founding Fathers".
Furthermore, the Bill of Rights didn't actually amount to very much until this century. Obviously state governments violated it consistently, as it didn't apparently apply to them; but so did the federal government routinely ignore whatever it didn't like. Censorship, unreasonable search and seizure, what have you -- all were fairly commonplace. This, too, is conveniently forgotten by those that mythologize a past America where civil liberties were supposedly untrammeled. Unfortunately, that time never existed. We live in an era of unprecedented governmental respect for civil liberties.
Nevertheless, that doesn't make me any more comfortable with Ashcroft and his myriad offenses.
If I were so sinister as to email people all sorts of evil stuff, my ISP is so crappy that they probably wouldn't be able to access any of my email.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
What would have Clinton, Gore, and Reno done?
Aspirin factories, stick up ass, Elian ...
That's how real terrorists communicate, they record their secret memos on Celine Dion MP3's. You can only hear them if you play them backwards. Try it and see for yourself!
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
This will just force the general populace to use strong crypto - a good step for freedom.
Public opinion always went along the lines of "If it is hard to eavesdrop, why use encryption."
Now it'll be "I bet the IRS is looking at my spending habits on a whim - Better encrypt huh?"
Remember kids! Guns don't kill people - Americans kill people.
On your feet on on your knees.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
I for one, think this is a pointless violation of our rights. Any "real" terrorist worth their mustard is probably using PGP, so the cops won't be able to read it anyway. Sounds like a lot of wasted money to me.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Does anyone know if there any investigation into .edu(s)?
But do they really want to read all the spam pr0n mail I get? I dont even bother reading it.
Right now we are lucky... lucky because there is a giant imbalance between information and the means to process it.
But that gap is going to shrink... as more programmers and database analysts get hired and design methods for extracting the information given to them.
Do you really think the government's insatiable hunger for information is going to diminish? The key to finding terrorists is not in looking at their criminal history, racial profiling or by their favorite books.The key is in finding those who dissent against certain policies of the US and take a best guess at whether they are committed enough to lash out against them that they are willing to take their own life or other's lives in order to acheive attention for their cause.
So think about that the next time you complain about gun laws or taxes or the war on drugs or whether your speeding ticket was unfair. Because when the supply of information is dwarfed by the ability to interpret it, it may be your front door that gets kicked down at three in the morning.
Hammer of Truth
Right now, we're operating under a crypto theocracy that uses state police powers to enforce the religious beliefs of political correctness.
The perverse effect of this is that, unless the United States ceases to operate as a unified entity, an open theocracy will soon (a generation or so) be running the show without restraint by the Bill of Rights -- probably headed by the fastest growing, most fertile, major religious group in the United States today: Muslims.
Seastead this.
If they're sending so many subpoenas that ISPs can't keep up, then doesn't that make it harder for the really important requests to go through? I mean, if this keeps up, then won't it give real terrorists a "buffer zone" of time in which they can send unencrypted emails and act on them before the feds can even get the emails from the ISPs?
c-hack.com |
Makes you wonder what slashdot's disclosure policy on its users and blogs, no?
Isn't she Hannah Arendt? Or maybe you're talking about someone else?
This is good example of why Priority downloads and uploads never worked well in internet desighns. As soon as someone relized that if they set their downloads to high priority then they will get super speeds on all their transfers. Unfortunetely, everybody else soon did the same and it ended up actually SLOWING the system down or just flat out crashing it.
Something similiar will probably happen with this. The companies wont be able to keep up with the demand and will probably close down or get the tech indistry to bribe congress into repelling (or at least limit) the law since they are loosing money doing this.
I use my own e-mail server setup behind the ISP. Does this system monitor only traffic to the ISP's e-mail server or does it just capture all port --dport 25 packets? If all it does it monitor ISP e-mail then it would be very easy to get past this.
Besides that with encryption like PGP/GPG text hidden in pictures and such...what does it matter what they can read. If someone wants to hide data from the government they still can....the only people that this will infringe their rights are those that don't know how to use such technologies...mainly average Joe Blow...hmmmm I wonder how they caught those recent kiddy porn rings...
You Americans get pissed off when terrorists blow your buildings and their occupants to bits, and then you get pissed off when your government tries to protect you. You can't have it both ways. And no, you can't have a better solution because your politicians are all smarter than you. That's why they lead and you follow.
I love Big Brother
Uhhhh can the Government trace this back to me now?
198.137.241.10 (resolves to e002.eop.gov)
198.137.241.11 (resolves to sseop102.eop.gov)
EOP is Executive Office of You-Know-Who, and I can only conjecture as to what the "SS" stands for. I don't have any political content on my website so I don't know why they'd be stopping by. All they requested was the index.
I've also had several hits from senate.gov, and one from 38.203.152.66 (ns1.dcitp.gov). A cursory glance at http://www.dcitp.gov (funny Flash intro!) reveals that DCITP is essentially the Fed's cybercrime training center. I don't know whether to be flattered or worried...
My firewall box has denied 35 _inbound_ packets today from a "Calypso Online" in Herndon, VA:Not major in and of itself, but this IP block was previously assigned to a company called "Cyveillance.com." Cyveillance's repeated inbound probes were what earned that IP block a spot in my firewall to begin with, and while the IPs now belong to Calypso, the new owner is up to the same tricks.
Cyveillance still exists; they've moved to 63.100.163.127 and are still as blatant as ever about what they do: "100 Percent Relevant Intelligence Mined Directly From the Internet - Cyveillance." I can't figure out who Calypso Online is, calypso.com is registered and seems a likely suspect; it resolves but isn't running a web server. Perhaps Cyveillance and Calypso are one in the same.
What does all this mean? Quite possibly nothing, but quite possibly something. All I know is I hate the idea of being monitored and I've been painting firewall rules with a broad brush lately.
If you don't sign up it would be very unpatriotic.
Postal workers have been reading our mail for eons....Telco employees have been evesdropping on our phone calls for years....Doctors, Nurses, IRS employees...meter readers....911 operators....it's a long list, and it didn't start building just last month.
Stop with the chicken little routine, already.
Holy cow, people.. If this one isn't a hotbutton issue, I surely don't know what is! /. channel, but now I'm starting to wonder...
I didn't *think* that I signed onto a low traffic
The (so-called) 'patriot' act is a burning bag of shit on the front porch of the framers of our Constitution!
When the Supremes get their mitts on this POS legislation, they'll tear it apart! It'll be Hideous!
I'm at a loss here.
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Anyone who doesn't think it's a problem should watch Brazil.
And maybe (for this crowd) replace "air-conditioner repairman" with "programmer" (think SSSCA).
Fuck 'em. Encrypt the dictionary and send it everywhere. Everybody adopt the alias 'Kilroy' in all IRC channels. Make aimless threats against non-existant businesses and places.
Thank you for your attention.
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
As callus as it may sound, perhaps we should consider the victims of these attacks as martyrs for the cause of freedom. Although they didn't choose to give their life (and that kind of sucks) but everything has a price. It is similar to the old credo of "I'd rather set free 1,000 guilty people then to imprison a single innocent person". To achieve freedom, it took the lives of many. There should be no surprise then that to maintain it, others too must make the ultimate sacrifice. However, recent legislation seems to be pushing us towards conformity (to those non-free nations who seek to destroy the US) rather then standing up and reaffirming why those people died. I for one would rather die young and free (whether it be in some unrelated political motivated attack like 9/11 or in a war) then to live out a long and "safe" government supervised life.
And ... obviously to start a flamewar
Happy to oblige...
What would have Clinton, Gore, and Reno done?
WTF does one group of crooks have to do with another?
Why is it that when someone comments on the lack of virtue in one half of the republicrat party, people think they can distract from the issue by pointing out how corrupt the other half is?
Get this into your head: in the big picture, Bush and Clinton are basically the same guy. Reno and Ashcroft are the same person. Gore and Chaney are the same person. There's no distracting contrast here. You didn't get Bush off the hook by reminding us that his buddy Clinton is a crook.
Remember these days for when your grandchildren ask about the end of the carefree days of the past. Or for when you're rotting away in some federeal prison over some trumped up charges that you no longer have a right to address.
Quoting Samuel L. Jackson: I don't remember askin' you a goddamn thing.
Sorry but I really couldn't resist.
Only U.S. Citizens need apply. Relocation to the Washington D.C. area is required.
They prefer you apply online!
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
Since "Slashdot" won't allow me to post the full text. You can look here and see the list of dangerous IP's to watch for.
c ke rz&hl=en&selm=GsPr8.4545%24_H4.2613%40atlpnn01.use netserver.com
http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=galt.2600.ha
Enjoy, note that more information is available via google.
Om, nomnomnom...
It is quite surprising for me to see that America seems to follow the path that was pioneered by the Soviet Union's government in 1930s.
As you may know, in 1934 Stalin simulated a terrorist act and killed his only rival in the power struggle Kirov. After that it was mandated that terrorist investigations should be given the maximum priority due to danger that terrorist acts pose for the state and the society. The law enforcement got extra power in controlling the citizens' activities and obtaining information to speed up the terrorist investigations. (Potentially all telephone conversations were tapped and all mail was opened). Also the police and the secret police got the authority to use special methods (or torture) to get 'confessions' of alleged criminals. In addition to that special tribunal system was established to speed up trials of terrorist suspects and prevent 'state secret' information from becoming the public knowledge. All that was done in the atmosphere of spy and terrorist paranoia propagated by the state-controlled media.
The results and the price that the people had to pay for such a state system are quite well-known today.
Of course, the situation in the present-day America is very different from that of the Soviet Union many decades ago. And the danger of terrorism is real and should be taken seriously. But the tendencies in development are quite disturbing. The only way to prevent abuses and keep existing freedoms and traditions is to provide accountability of the law enforcement before the general public and shed as much light as possible on the law enforcement activity.
Who comes up with these contrived names anyways?
Do they pay someone to do this, or do US lawmakers have nothing to do better themselves than try to come up with these silly acronyms that are just PR buzz?
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
That most people don't realize that the canadian goverment has been spying on it's own citizen's all the time. On top of that if you watch TV here you'll see the "pirated" TV channels with content stripped out "to protect" canadian identity.
Om, nomnomnom...
the way to restore privacy is to flood them with information?
Just put in suspicious words and phrases in everything you write until Big Brother gets a good old case of "Denial Of Service"?
I always loved DOS... but then, I always thought it was just an operating system.
It wasn't my intention to go biblical but 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'
I wonder if George W. has learnt anything from his predecessor?
It's both interesting and informative, especially if it's true.... in which case, perhaps the poster can provide a source?
From the article mentioned above: Particularly troublesome, Black said, is when law enforcement authorities move swiftly and "short-circuit" regular legal procedures. "I think we must be careful not to create a process whereby using a private company somehow empowers the government to do things they cannot legally do under the new laws," Black said. I wanna hear you say that dirty word... fascism! I believe Mussolini defined it as stato corporativo, or the "corporate state"...
The only way you get rights is to buy them. How much have you donated your Congressman/Party this year?
If you want real representation donate some serious bucks, then mail them a hand-written letter and make sure that they know that you're a serious contributor.
I think that way to many people have no idea how law enforcement actually works most of the time, and they just get blinded by the few times that stupid people in the govt. do stupid things
Okay, you want to know how law enforcement works?
Recently I ordered a substance over the internet that had been legal until sometime last year, when it was vaguely made illegal under an "analogue" act (something that I, and various lawyers I contacted later, were not aware of). The same internet site also sells another substance that is tightly controlled.
Well, when my package arrived, so did a US customs official and at least four local cops. They questioned me for 20 minutes in my foyer. They were physically threatening, verbally misleading, and they could not tell me what crime I had committed. They did suggest a crime (ordering the tightly-controlled substance), and they were intent on getting me confess to that.
They entered my apartment without a warrant, and proceeded to sieze property. They took lots of statements, and accused me of being a drug dealer based on the fact that I listen to techno. They assumed they would find a drug lab, and they did not.
Later I talked to some lawyers, and they said that I could "probably" get the search suppressed. Probably?!
Nothing has come of it so far, most likely because they have no evidence of what I ordered. Their entire operation was illegal, and they went out of their way to subvert the rights that I have. If I had been less forthright in asserting them, I easily could have confessed to a crime that I did not commit, landed in court, or in jail. If they had gotten a confession, or found what they were looking for, they would have prosecuted me, warrant or not.
Y o u c o u l d l i n k e v e r y c h a r a c t e r a n d h a v e l e f t o v e r s . . .
You can blame fate all you want /., this is still true. You guys couldn't editorialize your way out of a prayer meeting.
-1 offtopic? That shit was funny!
Bandwidth is a terrible thing to waste :)
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
I think freenet is a start, but it is not completely anonymous or untraceable yet, but with a few modifications can be made that way. I also think digital cash technology is out there, but the main systems in use today are too propriatory - a GPL'd solution could cause dramatic change.
What we need is a real technological solution, not a political solution to prevent this intrusion of our privacy - and even more it should be something doable in the USA
Funny you should mention that, as the lead story in todays wired is this:
A leash for carnavore
It's an open source system a guy has developed that encrypts all customer records, such that
1) No one can access them without an encryption key.
2) The only way it will provide a decryption key is upon being presented with an electronic request digitally signed by a judge.
3) The key it provides will ONLY decrypt the information specified by the judge and nothing more. No more abusing genuine warrents for overbroad fishing expeditions.
It's a great concept. It allows law enforcement all the data they are entitled to, and preclude rights-violations. And for this reason, law enforcement will probably fight it tooth and nail, and make sure it never gets used.
But an ISP in the USA that sells "secure, private" net access as a premium service could use this system as one hell of a selling point, and perhaps get the ball rolling. No overseas severs needed.
Great idea.
damn, you must be one o' them taliban lovin' beatnicks!
1. Install TLS-enabled SMTP daemons to "opportunistically" encrypt as much email as possible.
2. Use PGP/GPG when practical
3. Use SSH for all remote accesses and file transfers (aren't you already?)
4. Install and use IPSEC (e.g., FreeSWAN) if possible
5. If you use IMAP or POP, install SSL-encrypted versions of their clients and servers
6. Set up your own SMTP servers (with TLS enabled) instead of relying on your ISP's servers
7. Support https on all your web servers, even for open data.
And anything else that will help make the encrypted haystack just a little bigger.
And when they take your system, they'll disassemble it, down to the last screw on your hard drive, and they'll run a low-level inter-gap analysis on it. In the meantime, your system is ruined, and you won't be compensated for it.
Then again, if you're so apathetic about who has access to your system, maybe you shouldn't have it after all anyway.
"First they came for the terrorists and I said nothing because I was not a terrorist"
Jesus21 ??
What we need here, aside from the ben franklin quotes and correct acronyms for anti terrorism act - is a new RFC:
A protocol for quickly getting email/internet content to government agencies:
Should include an open stream of info going direct from the agency to the telco/ISP, which can be opened and closed when both parties agree to a subpoena and to a filter which will allow them both to get that info. It's not fair to get the poor sysadmins to have to do all the dirty work!
To help the agency and telco interact, they should appoint 2 mediators: one within the telco to approve the filter and the subpoena, and the other to ask for it at the agency, and to have open access to all the data at the ISP, but sworn to keep it to themselves until the legal bits are approved...
As for wether it's right or wrong, I think they can look at whatever they want. Provided we can look at them back. Open information!! Purveying Access To Real Information Over The world. (might need a counter-RFC...).
Ale
" On your feet on on your knees."
On your knees- beggin'. And I ain't much one for beggin'. I say 'Fuck it!' Let's fight this thing!
Aeieieieiei Chomp chomp chomp belch!
graspee
The line, the good captain informs us, must be drawn here. This far, and (apparently) no further.
If you want to join us, you've got to really hate the Borg.
I mean, besides trans-warp conduits, a sense of identity and belonging, increased efficiency, longer life-spans and cooler laser-pointers, what have the Borg ever done for us ?
graspee
The part that gets me is the library book thing. Not because I'm reading about explosives and poinson, but because I'm getting a shitload of computer books along with things like Masters of Deception, the Hacker Ethic, Takedown, and so forth. I do not break into computers and generally avoid things that are illegal, but wouldn't a library record like that draw some attention? How about the fact that I later went up to the central county library to have a look at a non-circulating utility map of the county?
Yes, these things may be suspicious, but I was sure I had the right to the privacy to do such things until recently. No, I wouldn't have checked out these books if I thought the government might be monitoring who checks out certain books, and its a shame that in the future I will feel hesitant to check out some of those books. I really don't know how to feel about it. Should I avoid checking out 'hacking' books, should I avoid computer books from the library entirely, or should I just go on as I always have? Will the government really go through and find everyone who has checked out Masters of Deception and run through the rest of their library record to look for patterns, or am I just being paranoid?
Oscar Wilde would add that it's also a virtue of the vicious.
This could happen..
On the way to my car from the American Legion, I was greeted by the police. They stated they had just been notified by computer that my bar tab was $40.32. And I must be intoxicated, and now must go down to the station with them.
Do you think all thoselicences paid for by the state of california was for the residents? Think again.
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin...
FYI, when you paraphrase someone you restate a passage giving the meaning in another form. You must not change the meaning substantially as you have done here.
It would be more accurate to say: "To distort Benjamin Franklin..." or "What Benjamin Franklin would have said if he were as smart as me..."
I am sorry to inform you, but it was not just Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft. Many Democrats and Republicans vote for this bill.
That was a patent no pressure vote right?
With half of new york in ruins....
We live in an era of unprecedented governmental respect for civil liberties.
One can see this respect even in the USA PATRIOT Act that uses tortuous language to try and make the act consistent with the Constitution and various court rulings. The British, with a more flexible notion of a constitution and a different role for the judiciary, simply hand government new powers to fight terrorism without such concern for precedent.
A good deal of the USAPA consists of minor, even miniscule, changes to earlier acts, like:
This highly legalistic approach to extending government powers shows that the government is mindful of what it is taking away and wishes to precisely delineate its new powers. It provides conventional recourse to the courts if the powers are exceeded or abused.
..and sort out the warrants later. This widespread monitoring is only due to the lack of proliferation of hard encryption (or any encryption) on the internet.
..don't panic
And according to George Carlin:
"Some people are really fuckin' stupid."
Strange definition of patriotism. Patriotism to the government not to the governed. Can you translate the word "Nationalism" into German?
Technically you're spouting nonsense about law enforcement only being about punishment.
Strange definition of patriotism. Patriotism to the government not to the governed. Can you translate the word "Nationalism" into German?
And while there is a problem with being on the wrong side of whoever gets elected (eg. Nixon and Watergate) (notice how wide the government definition of terrorism is) there are all the underpaid, harassed civil servants (the proverbial postman with a gun, IRS agent and crooked cops) that can now just claim "patriot act" (you wouldn't want to be investigated for protecting a terrorist would you")
QUOTE "Law enforcement officials have begun to press sources to deliver information without a formal subpoena, according to company lawyers. "Investigators have quickly learned that they don't need to leave a paper trail anymore so nobody can judge the lawfulness of a request," Gidari said."
Hey, fine by me. Right now my E-mail filters delete spam from the server and/or pass it straight to my trashcan. But if Big Brother wants to read my e-mails, well, a couple little changes to those filters and they can read all they want!
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
It was definitely a patent pressure vote. They still did not have to sign it. Only one senator voted no. It certainly tells me it was not a party thing. Both are responsible for it. I just dislike finger pointers, especially when they are misleading.
The fact is both parties voted for it, so both parties agreed with it. If they did not agree with it, they should have voted no.
So how does that square with Carlin's whole "There are no bombs and airport security is totally [expletive deleted] pointless" routine? :)
That said, Carlin is the funniest man alive.
I do not have a signature
In the movie, the feds talk about a drug deal in the middle of a swimming pool! That seems to be a reasonably safe means of communication.
I can imagine emailing a friend, "Hey, why don't you meet me at the pool"! Coming to think of it, people already do it at work -- "want to get some coffee?"
S
Although as Mr. Carlin noted nearly 10 years ago, the two men running the Gulf War were named Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. This is still true. And we all know what happens when you combine a dick with a colon.
I am officially gone from
The fact that the USA PATRIOT Act gives law enforcement all kinds of new powers is old news. Take a look at the editorial I wrote for SearchSecurity last December.
Slashdotters should stop whining about the big bad evil government and learn to grow up and take some responsibility. You are like children complaining that the adults are invading your secret hiding place. The threat to national security is real. We have already lost thousands of lives HERE right in the US and untold millions of dollars of property damage. You want the ability to hide behind your keyboards without paying the price for your privileged lifestyle. You want to be anonymous and live outside the sphere of society, fine go build yourself a cabin in Montana. You want the privilege of cutting edge high tech you need to accept the responsibility that goes along with it - including the mechanisms law enforcement requires to maintain some sembelence of an orderly society.
That was pretty much my point. Just because someone famous said something in the past, and just because a poster agrees with it...doesn't make it somehow magically right...let alone "interesting" or "insightful". Slashdot as a community is kinda lacking in the objective thinking department alot in the last year or two. Being penalized by the editors for modding up a post they don't agree with doesn't help that situation much either.
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future."
Adolph Hitler, 1935
Indeed!!!
They have been able to push each and every pet policy of theirs in the name of "homeland security" and patriotism.
With the exception of their pet arctic oil-drilling project, which went down in the Senate yesterday. They were pushing that one hard in the name of "energy security" from evil foreign oil producers.
Their "free ride" may not be over, but it is certainly slowing down.
Then again, there aren't cute migrating caribou on the net to turn into a rallying point against wire tapping.
Doing my part to piss off the religious right.
Now, remember, we have built statues and memorials to honor our "Founding Fathers". We have named streets and cities after them. Why do we no longer respect what they THOUGHT, and BELIEVED in? Those things are what this country is SUPPOSED to be based on!! These are the reasons for our Constitution............I was told once that if a person wanted to sound like some kind of crazy, radical, terrorist, maniac subversive, all that person had to do was start quoting the FOUNDING FATHERS of our great country!
Damn communistic american government.
I am surrounded by idiots
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstech nology/134438173_passport18.html
What's next? We're all going to be forced to use Hotmail with IE 6.0 and WinXP? The MS backdoors become government backdoors, and no one can tell the difference.
Actually I think pretty much everyone except the single Libertarian Congressman voted for this bill.
BOMB, FBI, CIA, NSA, BATF, PATRIOT, OVERTHROW, GOVERNMENT, PRESIDENT, ECHELON, GUN, MURDER, ASSASSINATE, KILL, EXECUTE, DIE, EXPLODE, PLANE, CRASH, DETONATE, SHIPMENT, DRUG, COCAINE, SMACK, CRACK, MARIJUANA, WEED, OPIUM, HEROIN, PCP, LSD, "THE STUFF", CHILD, PORN, HACK, CRACK, HACKER, CRACKER, VIRUS, EMAIL, OUTLOOK, VBSCRIPT, COPY PROTECTION, JON JOHANSEN, LINUX, UNIX, BSD, ILLEGAL, DECSS, DVD, DMCA, SSSCA, CDBTPA, SENATOR HOLLINGS, DELETE FILES, 1337, 31337, L33T, WAREZ, CR4X0R, H4X0R
ATTACK, AMERICA, USA, U.S.A., U.S., US, RIOT, UPRISING, POWER TO PEOPLE, SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST, ANARCHIST, POPULIST, GREEN PARTY, "THE DEAL IS DONE", BLACKBIRD, MILITARY, JET, SPY, SPY PLANE, KIDNAP, HARASS, MOLEST, TORTURE, ASHCROFT, ASSCROFT, ASSCRUFT, FASCIST, PIG, "ASHCROFT IS A FASCIST", "ASHCROFT IS A TERRORIST", "ASHCROFT IS A PIG", G.W., GEORGE, BUSH, DUBYA, CLINTON, BILL, REAGAN, RONALD, OSAMA BIN LADEN, RICHARD REID, TIMOTHY MCVEIGH, FIDEL CASTRO, "CARLOS THE JACKAL", VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRINCE WILLIAM, PRINCESS DIANA, UNABOMBER, THEODORE KAZCYNSKI, ARAB, TERRORIST
NEW WORLD ORDER, TRILATERAL COMMISSION, COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS, UFO, AREA 51, ILLUMINATI, BLACK HELICOPTER, DEUS EX, TRIAD, SECRET SERVICE, 2600, EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN, 1984, ARMY, NAVY, AIR FORCE, MARINES, DELTA FORCE, SEALS, RANGERS, "MILITARY PEOPLE ARE SHEEPLE", BOMB BOMB BOMB!!!, WTC, WTO, WORLD TRADE CENTER, 9-11, 911, 9/11, 11/9, 11-9, SEPT 11, 11 SEPT, FDR, FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, NERVE GAS, VX5, NAPALM, MUSTARD GAS, AGENT ORANGE, SADDAM HUSSEIN, STEAL
NUKE, NUCLEAR, PLUTONIUM, DEVICE, ATOMIC, "GLOW GREEN", EASTERN SEABOARD, WHITE HOUSE, D.C., 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., SUIT, MACHINE GUN, AK-47, M16, AR-15, MP5, TEK9, GLOCK, HOWITZER, BATTLESHIP, AIR CRAFT CARRIER, NIMITZ, U.S.S. MISSOURI, BOMB AGAIN!, BOMB, SLASHDOT, "INFAMOUS HACKER PORTAL, SLASHDOT", KURO5HIN, ANTI-AMERICAN, CONSERVATIVE, LIBERAL, USENET, KOOK, FLAG, SOVIET UNION, MARXISM, LENINISM, RAISETHEFIST.COM
"THE EAGLE HAS LANDED", "THE CROW FLIES BY MIDNIGHT", "THE DOG IS IN THE FIELD", SNIFFER, PASSWORD, DATA MINING, SECURITY, INSECURE, WINDOWS, 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, ASTALAVISTA.BOX.SK, CRACKS.AM, NEWORDER.BOX,SK, BRITNEY SPEARS, HOT, FUCK, ROBBERY, BREAK-IN, CROWBAR, OFFSHORE, BANK ACCOUNT, SWITZERLAND, TAX SHELTER, TAX EVASION, "ECHELON HAD DAMN WELL BETTER BE LISTENING BECAUSE THIS TOOK A SHITLOAD OF TIME TO WRITE"
/me waves to Big Brother
...if this doesn't trip a few flags...
Hey, there's a white van out front, and people are coming out wearing jackets that say "FBI", and strangely they're running towards my house with big guns...
+++CARRIER LOST+++
While I agree with the article on most points, if the ISPs are maxed at the moment with hundreds of thousands of subpoenas, then in a couple of months they sure won't be able to keep up. I suspect this statement is hyperbole.
Here's a thought, set up two email adresses and have a conversation with yourself mentioning all kinds of things, like say BOMB, KILL, BUILDING, OVERTHROW, etc.... see how long it takes you to get noticed.
:)
Can they throw you in jail for being schizophrenic?
--Just cuz your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't listening.
--homiefro
If you're thinking this is about crime, you're right. But that doesn't make it pointless. There are plently of reasons people in power could use this kind info for either their personal gain, or to further misguided views on making "a better world".
What would a directed graph of e-mail activity be for employee's of, say, Enron, be worth? Who's talking to whom, who's taking to competitors, who's talking to people that might have been "hostile" to such a fine "All American" endevor. The Feds often take sides and such a graph can only help "manage" away people that might interfere with the grand plan.
Terrorists and other master criminals aren't likely that stupid. If I were one, I'd broadcast encrypted mission plans over some popular alt.sex newsgroup. No fixed point of origin or destination, no directed graphs of roving contacts, just secret data to all the right people. Visit one and look at all the encrypted data streams aleady there.
No, USA PATRIOT ACT has NOTHING to do with Terrorism, or other Capital Crime. Nothing.
These kinds of things only help catch "casual" criminals. The typically non-violent type that make the news on a daily basis. Worth effort, or not, installing such a internal spy system under the guise of "terrorists" is disingenuous.
Our constitution is nothing, but annoying paperwork for our government to sidestep.
Look how "free" the Soviet Union was:
http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/law/r100000_.html
We're all too stupid to live. We're going extinct.
I mean, hey, I'm glad so many people here are concerned about the government having fewer hoops to jump through to monitor our email, but when you collectively choose to elect legislators who'll intrude in other peoples' lives to implement your pet agenda, don't be surprised when their knee-jerk reaction to an atrocity like 2001-09-11 is to pass some laws making it easier to intrude in your lives to ease the fears of others who might care nothing about the privacy of email.
Practice random senselessness and act kind of beautiful.
Does anybody remember a Lyndon LaRouche infomercial about 10 years ago ? This promised to have manned space flight to Mars within about 10 years. I don't remember all the details, but the first step was to declare a national emergency, and suspend the constitution. Anyways, it looks like John Ashcroft has been more successful than LL. A particulary scary note in the EFF article was all the provisions labelled DOES NOT SUNSET. This is compounded by the fact that the sunset date is December 31, 2005 and recent congressional trends to pass outrageous legislation nearly unanimously. On top of this, you have recent public opinion (baaa, baaa). From the newhouse article: --- In fact, since Sept. 11, pollsters have tracked a dramatic shift in public attitudes about government and privacy. In a national survey March 28, pollster John Zogby found 55 percent in favor of allowing police to search their purses, handbags, backpacks or packages at random anywhere, while 48 percent would allow their cars to be searched, 36 percent would allow their mail to be searched and 26 percent said they would not object to having telephone conversations monitored by authorities. ---- Maybe 2004 will be LL's year (unless he's dead - I don't remember).
---
For your protection, a copy of this message is being sent via RFC 1149.
"Just wondering...how did they get into your foyer -- did you invite them in?"
Does the DEA need to be invited in, or can they just knock your door down?
"666" is a lot closer than people can imaging.
The better question is, what gives anyone else the right to intrude upon it? Privacy is nothing more than the right to be left alone, and I remember nothing in my civics classes from college stating the government's mandate was to explore leads without the insight of a judiciary.