Slashdot Mirror
AT&T Accidentally Leaks NSA Suit Information
op12 writes "CNET has an article describing how AT&T accidentally leaked sensitive information involving the NSA lawsuit. From the article: 'AT&T's attorneys this week filed a 25-page legal brief striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable. But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11. The deleted portions of the legal brief seek to offer benign reasons why AT&T would allegedly have a secret room at its downtown San Francisco switching center that would be designed to monitor Internet and telephone traffic. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class action lawsuit in January, alleges that room is used by an unlawful National Security Agency surveillance program.""
But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11.
Looks like Slashdot is informing readers how to avoid document protection mechanisms. I hope you don't get sued under the DMCA!
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Now xpdf will be banned under the DMCA.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
"Everyone is naked!", the king shouted ..
Sorry, but with this administration, it's hard not to assume some underhanded strong-armin^^^^^ persuasion.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
The secret room is room 101.
Duh.
Does anyone have the original PDF or the one with the blacked stuff available to read?
So, if there really are...
benign reasons why AT&T would allegedly have a secret room at its downtown San Francisco switching center
then why did...
the Bush administration [submit] a 29-page brief that elaborates on its argument that the case should be tossed out of court because of the "state secrets" privilege?
Seems like if they didn't do anything illegal they have nothing to fear.
Didn't we see one of these backrooms in takedown?
They went to see some fat guy who traced the calls for feds from there.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
That the US as a whole doesn't seem to give a shit about this. Look at the results of polls. Ranges from general aloofness to "it's good for National Security(TM)." Look at T's stock price. Huh, normally a company with such an incriminating lawsuit wielded against it would take at least somewhat of a hit in price (though the markets ARE very wierd right now). It seems that the techie crowd are the very small minority of folks who actually care that their phone calls were tracked without ANY precedent in the first place. We're not talking warrantless tracking, we're talking completely random warrantless tracking. What was the saying in Rome? Feed the masses and give them entertainment, and you can do anything to them.
Do not downmod posts "overrated" simply because you disagree with them.
It's called the 'delete' key. Why go through the sham of putting black lines through everything in an electronic document?? If you want to preserve the layout how about asterisks or similar?
I swear, I've heard about so many instances of this exact same attack, I stop feeling sorry for the idiots who are surely going to get fired for this.
If it's not people who don't really understand how postscript works, it's people who don't realise those 4MB word files contain more than just the visible part of the document....
Every educated person should now know that black bars in PDF do not remove what is under them. There were several high-profile cases in the press by now.
In addition, do these people not employ any security experts that tell them how to do this right? Making clean (text) documents is really easy: Export to ASCII, remove text, import as ASCII. But obviously this low-tech approach needs a qualified high wizard of computing today.
Not that I mind that these amoral scum got bitten.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You think they would sue the ones actually responsible for making this all happen, you know, the fucking government?
Suing AT&T really misses the point...
"That the US as a whole doesn't seem to give a shit about this. Look at the results of polls."
Well according to the poll I just did. Nine out of ten geeks are sexy and will get married and have kids.
This is a multinational corporation with its global reputation on the line, not some band of trolls that can't abide sunlight. They have very, very smart people running their response. Their bland, everything's-fine, "we're just innocent li'l good boys doing what we should" arguments aren't even remotely plausible candidates for secret filings. It's a dodge, meant to convince the people who want to trust them and divert the ones who don't.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
This is what happens when you outsource your redacting responsibilities to overseas contractors.
Considering they're apparently working with the NSA, it's amazing they were this sloppy. If you've ever seen an NSA release of a classified document that's been scrubbed, it's always very clear that it's either a document that someone has physically overwritten with a black marker and then scanned (such as here), or a document that was edited on a computer, printed out, and then scanned back in again (such as here). They do that precisely so there's no traces of old information left in there. I'm surprised they didn't lend their trick to AT&T.
But now we just let them spy on us, arrest us without warrants, ship American citizens off to foreign prisons to be tortured for years without any formal charges, and turn the Constitution into confetti for their personal profit.
That said, the NSA has never been that legal, from a constitutional view, but noone is willing to challenge their existance, most likely due to fear or threat of tag teams of government lawsuits, IRS audits, and other tricks used by those who wish America to live in Fear.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That's very insightful. I'm jealous I didn't think of it.
Some people are simply idiots, sloppy, or rushed.
Anybody thinks that this stuff was ruled over? It's very heavy underlining I tell you. Ok, it is so heavy, it covered the text, but it did its task and got it onto /.
Not the first time 'redacted' pdf's when 'uncovered' have led to increase the defensive position of the group who supplied the 'poorly' protected document.
I recall a redacted PDF from italy that 'supported' the US gov'ts claims at the time..
it's too damn convenient, if the redacted portion had been damming.. I'm sure the doc would have been on paper, with the blocked portions cut out... not blacked over with a sharpie.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The method that I've found that works best is just replacing said text with a series of XXXXs.
You're method will not work in the general case.
Specifically, your algorithm performs poorly if you want to remove all occurences of the phrase 'XXX' in a document.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Because you can't sue the fucking government unless they let you.
I can just imagine what's in those documents... "here's a picture of your granddaughter next to one of our agents at school... here's a picture of your toothbrush - I wonder what's on it... Here's a picture of your wife sitting at home masturbating thinking she was alone (heh)... Here's a picture of you and your secretary." Sorry, but with this administration, it's hard not to assume some underhanded strong-armin^^^^^ persuasion.
Excuse me, *this* administration. You lost quite a bit of credibility on that one. *Any* administration can do such things. Read up on President John F Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy's surveilance of Martin Luther King.
this news won't make any sort of news outside the internet.... what a sad state of affairs...
And you're posting this from the White House lawn, right? How's the WiFi signal over there?
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their neighbors.
I'm sorry you feel so bad about it, but most US citizens are simply secure in the knowledge that Dubya cannot run again.
The NSA should be disbanded/absorbed into the CIA for going along with this crap.
They're smart folks, and should know better.
Dumbass---er..Dubya (and all his Gestapo) belong in prison IMHO, not that I ever see that happening, but what goes `round comes `round as is said.
_________________
I used to be a Republican, but as the definition of "Republican" has drifted, I realize I'm now effectively somewhere between a Libertarian and an Anarchist.
White House lawn, huh? You think someone in there gives a rat's ass?
Here in Boston area there's a grocery store chain called "Bread & Circus", which carries "whole foods" and other natural, organic, yuppie bunny-hugger type foods. However, the price is so high on these goods that two bags of groceries can routinely run you around $100, hence the moniker "Bleed and Soak Us". Bleed and Soak Us seems apt for what the Bush Administration is doing to us, no?
Yup. Consider the way the media handled the Colbert performance, for instance.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
The problem is that, short of a revolution or coup, there's nothing we would be able to accomplish. Gone are the days when government was for the people... now they're for themselves and the businesses that line their pockets. You may say we live in a democracy and can simply voice our opinions with our votes. Try again. Elections are decided by an audience way too suceptible to infomercials and mudslinging ad campaigns paid for by the companies with the most money... the candidate/company with the most money, has the most influence and thus the easiest task of brainwashing the mindless American public. In other words, we're Rome waiting to crumble.
You think they would sue the ones actually responsible for making this all happen, you know, the fucking government? Suing AT&T really misses the point...
Same reason RIAA sues kids, you sue the involved party with the fewer resources to defend themselves, hope for precedent to further future suits, etc. Of course when the weaker party is AT&T "fewer resources" is obviously relative.
They missed one. At the bottom of page 37 is says "TOP SECRET UMBRA".
Backups are for wimps. Real men post their data in comments and have slashdot mirror it
White House lawn, huh? You think someone in there gives a rat's ass?
Not for three years anyway, they are only scared by people, and those people must be en mass. Though even given enough (witness the anti-war demonstrations in the UK prior to the Iraq war), the government can still proceed as it wants if there is enough time before the next demonstration of democracy, i.e an election.
Unfortunately, the general public are fairly timid, and unless the situation has affected them personally, in a direct manner, and even if they oppose the situation, they will not get off their arses and attempt to do something about it.
Passions need to be ignited within an individual before they will be proactive, and in a comfortable world, passion is something that is hard to come by, especially when it is far easier to be slightly bemused and stand on the sidelines.
Knowing their history, we will probably have it soon enshrined in our caselaw that the President may spy on any American anytime he wants for any reason or no reason.
Additionally he is infinitely more likely to make contact with enemies of the state than the average person.
Do you really think that White House calls are in the record?
...some American citizens are seriously discussing the political asylum option. I know of an ex-USAF and NASA test pilot who was making enquiries, as well as a serving US Army Apache attack helicopter pilot who was trying to find a place to live once he'd told his bosses that he was not going back to the Iraq oil robbery^^^^^war. Both were once ultra-patriotic guys, who I used to have huge (but friendly) arguments with about America's past conduct. Now they are looking to permanently move to a Southern Hemisphere nation.
I never thought I'd see the day when ordinary American citizens were so terrified with and disgusted by their own government that they are preparing to flee. They would prefer to stay and fight to get back a free America, but they know that the odds are against them, since most of Big Fat Stupid America(TM) inevitably doesn't give a shit about the things that are happening to them.
Since when does /. run flash ads with freaking audio? I just got a Table Tennis ad (from Rockstar) and it has music and freaking ball hitting sounds. I haven't installed any ad-blocking crap into Firefox yet (since I understand the need for ads to generate revenue), but that is just too far. If I see one more, ad blocking here I come.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
Under Windows no less. No security here. This is wide open.
Right, but not every single administration does. Thus, his statement was appropriate
Dear Prime Minister,
I have just read about extraordinary rendition on an online forum. This is a practice where the American government sends suspects overseas for interrogation and imprisonment. This practice is seen as a way of circumventing their obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. If cases such as these are presented in an American court they are dismissed by the administration on "State Secrets" grounds.
In view of this I would like to ask the Prime Minister to;
*Assure me that we are in no way an accomplice, indirectly or directly, to this practice.
*Investigate these rumors for evidence.
*Act upon any evidence obtained.
I realise that America is the most powerful country in the world currently, but at the same time I don't think any moral person of our country would justify that as grounds for turning a blind eye to torture.
Yours sincerely, .
I doubt that will have any effect, but who knows, maybe she has received a thousands more like it. Good luck, I hope things improve for you. If it gets to bad, you will more than likely be welcome at this end of the world. We aren't totally screwed up in N.Z. yet (just a touch). Its a pity, America once epitomized hope for me. I believed in it standing for freedom, rights, humanity. When Neil Armstrong said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I believed he meant for mankind. When I visited Los Angeles as a teenager, I liked the people. They were helpful and friendly....just good people. I still believe that most Americans are good people. At some point though, you have to stand for what you believe in or you will lose it. Even if you find it was a lie, it is still better to know.
Over the past five years my impressions of America have been destroyed by the actions of its government both at home and on the world stage. After reading Slashdot over the past year, there was a brief moment of hope that there were people still willing to lay down their comforts for the ideals expressed in your constitution. It seems now that Slashdot is a place were people say they stand for certain ideals, but the saying of it is enough for them. It is not enough for me.
Goodbye, good luck. BarefootGenius./. bug #926803 - Why I can post.
> In other words, we're Rome waiting to crumble.
Nicely put.
I suspect that most Americans and associated countries dont even contemplate a revolution as a possibility; they are now too comfortable, and have been acclimatised to dissidents being identified before the crime has been committed. As a result, temperate large scale protests are the accepted means of people expressing their power and venting a bit of steam.
I certainly dont want Rome to crumble as it will bring down everything around it. It was a big wake up call when Australia, where I live, followed USA into the ``war on terror''. Our society and economic market is rapidly becoming so interconnected that all nations need to stand behind each other, or whoever is strongest -- even sovereign states are not free to make their own decisions based on public opinion.
whos colbert? Comedy Central ?
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Call me paranoid, and I'm sure some will jump at the opportunity faster than a "Slashdot First-post"-er, but haven't we noticed a relatively recent trend in communications companies merging? The Bells coming back together in spite of the original, successful and effective purpose for separating them? Internet and wireless companies all converging?
At first, I believed it was all only the "pro-big-business" leanings of the current administration. Now I'm beginning to believe it's quite a bit more. Consider how much easier it is to implement these plans when there are fewer companies to convince to do your bidding?
Okay, there's definitely a trace of paranoia, but geez. The past and present peices come together to form some rather coincidental pictures.
Excuse me, *Kennedy*. You lost quite a bit of credibility on that one. Read up on FISA and specifically what year it was enacted.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
What JFK did or did not is irrelevant because, at the time, wiretapping-at-will was legal. Telephone conversations were not considered private at the time (you know, with manually operated switchboards, crosstalk, reconnections, you could not reasonably expect your conversation to be private. Kinda same way as if you screw your wife in the park, then sue the city for 'violating your privacy': there is no expectation of privacy at the setting.
... that was back when we had REAL conservatives.
NOW, since 1978, due to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/ warrantless spying on Americans became illegal.
To be fair, Clinton had tried same shit, but was bitchslapped back into behaving... because warrantless spying was illegal since 1978!
With Bush, REAL conservatives turned into kookservatives, the general public is happy with 9/11 excuse...
Q: Why did we invade Iraq, W?
A: terrorism
Q: why do you torture people?
A: 9/11
Q: why does the gas cost $4?
A; bin Laden
Q: why is the sky blue?
A: terrorism?
But hell, people like you know better, people like you know the Truth, people like you have all the answers, even before you hear the question.
Megadildoes, asshole! Good luck to you with all that.
A country's laws are binding only within its own borders.
I have noticed how carefully worded the denials reported recently in the media have been stated. The denials by these companies have taken the form of, "Contrary to media reports, we (AT&T or Bell South or whomever) have not been handing over any data to XYZ agency."
These blacked out portions seem to confirm what is actually happening - ACCESS is being handed over, not data.
XYZ agencies take whatever data they want, once they have access, and the company is doing nothing more affirmative than supplying that access.
Just a guess, but seems likely given the curious locutions and text hidings.
Why they even bothered to redact it. Usually redacting is used when one side has to produce something through discovery, but portions of it are considered privileged or something to that effect. But this is a Memorandum, drafted entirely by AT&T's lawyers. They could put into it or not put into it whatever they wanted. If they didn't want people to see what was under the black bars, why didn't they just *leave it out*?
After the gubment sells the Internets to AT&T and Verizon you comments won't be allowed... After all it is *their* Intetnet, go get you own if you want to bad mouth our Interwebs masters!
Thanks to eating disorders most chicks are reasonably good looking these days.
But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11.
Also works with the normal Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 for Windows. No DMCA mumbo-jumbo... whoever did it just had no idea what they were doing.
FTA:
Maybe AT&T is trying to show that they're not just a sock puppet of the NSA. Or maybe the NSA is sneaky enough to try and hide that AT&T is merely a sock puppet.Damn, I'm snickering so hard that I can't find my tinfoil....
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Excuse me, *Kennedy*. You lost quite a bit of credibility on that one. Read up on FISA and specifically what year it was enacted.
Remind us again what the F I in FISA stands for, and how the Rev. MLK fits into that?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Or so Dubya Dim and his Admin would have us believe when rationalising the unconstitutional imprisonement of humans at Guantanamo Bay, but all legitimate authority to govern in America is grounded within the Constitution, and a quick read from the Bill of Rights can be extremely illuminating:
Guantanamo Bay is certainly within the set of places defined as "any place subject to" the US Government's juristiction. Mr. Bush himself changed these humans' designation from POW to "criminal detainee". By his own edict, he admits that he believes they are criminal actors, and yet has callously disregarded clear strictures that compel due proces of law be given, by the very document which is the source of legitimacy for his political office, and which he has now twice solemnly sworn in public to protect and uphold.
This is American Tyranny.
Please someone give GW a BJ, so the Republican majority can discover a reason to impeach him.
Until the state can secure a prosecution which follows due process of law, the accused retains the right to a timely and public trial decided by a jury, in which the defendant possesses the right that no compelled testimony of his will be used; possesses the right to challenge the witnesses and evidence used by the state in their prosecution; retains the right to acquire witnesses and evidence for his defense; and the right to a competent counsel reperesenting him, who is dedicated to his defense. These rights are universal in their bar to the State's power of imprisonment, were completely removed from the State's lawful reach, and placed in the category: "Natural Rights", which are possessed by All Humans. There is No terrorism exemption, and these are Not rights which are only conferred by US citizenship, for to argue that they are is to argue that they are not natural rights, but a gift of a generous state to its citizens.
Cowards, thieves and partisan hacks equivocate, and pimp out the rights of humans for pocket change. A constitutionally illiterate and acquiescent citizenry quakes in fear contemplating the destruction that twenty maniacs were able to cause, because the person and his administration who were tasked with the duty of our country's defense, were so arrogant, ignorant and derelict, they were fast asleep upon the watchtowers.
The Dreamtime America is fast fading away.>/p>
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
Once again I hear Contemporary Conservatism's tinny cry of moral equivalence, as it continues its long plunging fall from grace into the fetid pit of situationalism.
Are you implying that two wrongs make-up a righty's rationalisation for liberty's theft?
Why did you just skip over the Nixon d ark e vil, when discussing unlawful executive acts of surveilling past? Why did you play the ugly card of moral relevancy by pulling it out from inside of your sleeve?
You also just hopped over any comparisons of scope and degree of implementation.
A clear difference between Republicans and Democrats is that when Democrats sodomise you, they honestly believe they're doing it for the higher good, will use a bit of lubrication, and lie the next morning, telling you they still care. Republicans, being stark realists, are not enamored by such silly notions, sodomise you only for their own personal agrandisement, and experience intense pleasure from their wielding of illegitimate force.
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
please don't take being anal to the extreme,
and wipe your ass with the Bill of rights.
- - - -
- - - -
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
Just for the record, that stat is bogus, you can vote 5 times per phone line, most people have two phone lines, the only way you can vote 10 times for president is to move to Chicago and die...
Unless they capture a bunch of paranoid sheepophobes or something...
What connection do you have with Al Qaeda?
I tell you nothing, son of a monkey and a pig!
Bring in the sheep!
BAAAA!
Okay, and Osama's MSN Messenger ID? Good, good.
How : just change the coloring of the document in the accessibility futures ( custom colors)
It is a very dumb way to hide something , they just applied some formatting and did not delete the text.
Yes of course there are many decent people in the US, just as there are in NZ, here and everywhere else. But the rest of the world doesn't experience those people, we experience US culture, which is a loathsome creation encouraging humans to place their own personal greed, self-indulgence and basest desires before everything and everyone else. It's really no surprise that the US government exemplifies the culture of which it is a product.
The sooner the USA falls apart from its own internal divisions and power struggles, the better off the world will be.
Go right ahead, mod me to hell. I really couldn't care less.
"We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code." Dave Clark, IETF
On the whole, the concept of the agency is great, vital to the nation.
The problems come in when required legal processes are ignored by the powers that be.
I feel ashamed to have worked under that agency for a couple of years. What is going on here is against the very mantra they preach to you regarding the performance of your duties. Violating the laws against collection on US Citizens used to be about on the same level as screwing a horse. Now it seems to be quite acceptable, at least by the upper echelon of management.
All your base are belong to Google.
are hedge funds in the money world something akind to
tier 1 providers in the communication industry?
When the FIRST person was denied due process, tied to a chair and beaten to death in the "War on Terror", we ( The USA ) became exactly as evil as the Nazis.
The ONLY differences are (so far) the methods and bodycount.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Given all the press about improper redactions using PDF (DoD, et al), you would think that their legal staff would have gotten a bit smart on this. I work next to a Freedom Of Information Act office and we have been savvy on this for some time.
Bottom line, don't trust attorneys with anything more than the words, and leave electonic publication to professionals. (Could this be proof that smart tech writers should be payed more than dumb lawyers?)
You redact "Top Secret" after you redact the document because it's no long Top Secret and doesn't require the same handling procedures. Simple administrative issue and nothing stupid about it.
"classified documents that Walker could review in private--documents that, in the eyes of the government, will convince him to dismiss the lawsuit."
Ya, I can imagine what *those* would say....
"dear judge. Cheney wants a skeet partner. How is your aim?"
Yeah those guys at the Register are the real champions of freedom. From thier high perch in the UK they always swoop down to defend Americans liberty.
1) The only "guesswork" involved in the cited article is that potential terrorists comprise only a very small proportion of the total population of the United States, a perfectly reasonable assumption. The rest follows from Bayes Theorem, and a wide range of assumed probability of detection values used for illustration of their point.
2)If there are other factors in identifying potential terrorists, then is should be easy to actually obey the lay and obtain a WARRANT.
After all, the real issue is a blatent and treasonously illegal disregard of Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which requires that all searches and seizures require a warrant.
*By "Insightful", I mean bending your torso to the degree that you can peer into your own asshole.
On the off chance that a knowledgeable admin asssitant "just did what I was told", good for you. You'll never be able to say so. ;)
So where in the cited article is there something so unreasonable as to be labeled as "mere guesswork"?
Thanks for the info! I didn't know that.
Assuming that the PDF I downloaded is the same as all the others, you only need the "hacker tool" called Notepad to view the hidden passages...
(Sorry Linux users, you may not have any tools this powerful in your "hacking arsenal") LOL
The title of the law doesn't dictate the body of the law.
You clearly didn't even READ the PAGE YOU LINKED, because it does begin to cover the issue:
etc. etc.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
What JFK did or did not is irrelevant because, at the time, wiretapping-at-will was legal.
No, much of what is being discussed on slashdot is the morality of such behaviors not merely their legailty. We see many complaints of what is currently legal and should not be due to morality. The Kennedy example of iconic liberal president spying on an iconic civil right leader makes a powerful example of my point that such behaviors are not specific to any administration or party. When a court decides that current surveilance is legal will you drop all complaints?
When Americans were torturing innocent people in secret European prisons, who broke the story? It sure as fuck wasn't the Europeans, they only started whining when they got caught.
Americans have a strong sense of right and wrong. The idea that the American government is spying on innocent American citizens rightfully strikes many people as wrong. I, for one, would not be surprised if AT&T and/or NSA employees leaked this on purpose. If so, then that makes them true patriots.
[o]_O
and please forgive my snide remark at the end. I misunderstood your position as being in support of the NSA's illegal domestic spying. That being said, I still liked the article. I am sure whatever the actual numbers of the NSA's program for probability of detection and false alarm rate for finding terrorists (or whatever it is they are searching for) are highly classified, so all we can do is make reasonable guesses. The author's point was that, almost certainly, the number of false alarms overwhelms the usefulness of any system when the number of targets is a very small proportion of the total population. I guess that is obvious to anyone with even an elementary understanding of statistics, but it is NOT obvious to the general public (the intended audience). As for the other tools, collection of other records such as police records, credit card information, bank records, credit ratings, medical records, voter registration, public library records, internet surfing habits...I highly doubt the effort of collecting all of this information for ALL American citizens can be economically or tactically justified if the real target is some tiny proportion of the population (terrorists). The author's point is that this program is ripe for abuse, and is likely designed for abusive surveillance of some much larger class of "targets". Again, this point should be obvious for anyone with an elementary understanding of the mathematics. If you are looking for 500 terrorists wouldn't you want to decrease the search space to, say, 50,000 or less, rather than increase the search space to 300 million! Sheesh, whatever happened to "old-fashioned" detective work and HUMINT operations?
There's an excellent discussion regarding this here:
CNN - Entertainment
The AT&T lawyers behind this are idiots and should be fired. There's aperfectly good solution for redaction of PDFs, Redax, and it's widely advertised and discussed in computer publications intended for legal staff. Moreover, this Redax stuff actually works. Since U.S. federal courts now require (or at least strongly encourage) electronic filing in PDF, any lawyer who plans to litigate in the federal court system needs to know about it.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell