Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

U.S. Proposes Centralized Internet Surveillance

Posted by michael on from the one-NOC-to-rule-them-all dept.

Mr.Intel writes "The Times is reporting that President Bush is 'planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users.' The recommendation is part of a report entitled 'The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace'. It is due to be published early next year."

7 of 733 comments (clear)

  1. States are asserting their rights by bugpit · · Score: 5, Informative

    This Wired article notes that states are rapidly passing legislation that locally prohibits much of the federal gov't activities outlined in the Patriot Act.

    --
    We have found the enemy and he is us. - Pogo
    1. Re:States are asserting their rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The states can't do anything about it. According to the US Constitution , Federal law always trumps state law. A direct quote from article VI of the constitution: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. " The civil war already settled the matter of federal supremecy over states rights.

    2. Re:States are asserting their rights by bugpit · · Score: 3, Informative
      The states rights issue has been a conservative agenda item for some time, it certainly was in the last presidential election. As this editorial points out, there is a fundamental conflict in the positions being advanced by conservatives, you can't fight for states rights and also push federal legistation like the Patriot Act at the same time. Unless of course the voting public isn't bright enough to understand the contradiction.

      --
      We have found the enemy and he is us. - Pogo
  2. Bass-Ackward Approach by HelbaSluice · · Score: 2, Informative

    So instead of securing vulnerable and critical systems, we're going to monitor THE WHOLE INTERNET. Okay... That sounds like a plan...

    Setting the civil liberties nightmare aside for a second, and even assuming the terrorist threat to the computing infrastructure is real and justifies this level of response, this approach is just bad policy. This is yet another expression of our Cowboy President's locker-room-towel-snapping "let's go get them bad dudes" mentality. Any IT security professional will tell you this aproach is precisely backwards.

  3. Re:The Transparent Society by YeOldeGnurd · · Score: 5, Informative
    If police cameras watch us, shouldn't we be able to watch police stations?
    Not in Portland OR, apparently. Prosecutors and politicians claimed the right to go through people's trash whenever the police wished to, without a warrant. The used the argument in court that anyone has the right to go through anyone else's trash. So two Willamette Week reporters put that claim to the test by taking and analyzing the trash from the homes of the District Attorney, the Mayor, and the Chief of Police. It looks like the reporters will get arrested soon. You can read the story here

    --
    ...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
  4. The Times by Dusabre · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Times is printed in London. It's not called the London Times. It's not called the City Times. It's just called the Times. Now the New York Times may be referred to as the Times by some Americans, more cosmopolitan Americans and world wide slashdotters recognise it as NY Times, NYTimes or The New York Times.

  5. We already have this for phones by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative
    Centralized wiretapping is already in place for voice phones. That controversy was lost in 1994, when the Commmunications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) was passed.

    Read through the technical specs for CALEA wiretaps. There have been some recent, wierd changes. Wiretap data used to be delivered over leased T1 lines, which at least meant that it was going to some well-defined place. Recently, dial-out wiretapping capability has been added to Nortel and Lucent switches, allowing the delivery of wiretapped calls to any phone.