Security Threat In the New Wiretapping Law

The NSA wants automatic surveillance capabilities in telephone switches. But once such capabilities are built in, others could use them to intercept communications. Within 10 years this could render the US vulnerable to attacks from terrorist groups across the globe, as well as from the military establishments of other nations. "Such threats are not theoretical: In April 2004, phones belonging to members of the Greek government, including the prime minister, were spied on with wiretapping software that was misused."

Comments

Re:This is really creepy

[WindBourne]

Only Communist China and North Korea have such interests in implementing technology like this. Hell Bejing already is monitored 24x7.

Sadly, that is false. Nearly all nations are involved in this. In fact, the bulk of EU monitors everything now. Canada, Australia, etc are all moving to monitoring of their aliens (and citizens). US and Greece are NOT unusual in all this. They have simply got caught. Don't believe it? Ever wonder exactly why Britain, Poland, France, Italy and Germany have given us all sorts of interesting info about possible attacks? Where exactly do you think that they got it from?

The funny thing, is that reagan has more to do with this than most leaders. He was a true believer in "war is peace", just like W.

As seen on Bruce Schneier's blog 9-Aug-07

[Mathinker]

As seen on Bruce Schneier's blog.

Re:This is really creepy

[TubeSteak]

Ever wonder exactly why Britain, Poland, France, Italy and Germany have given us all sorts of interesting info about possible attacks? Where exactly do you think that they got it from? An argument from personal incredulity, also known as argument from personal belief or argument from personal conviction, is no argument at all.

There are two ways to deal with terrorism:
A) The military model (Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, warrantless wiretaps)
B) The law enforcement model

Almost all the cases of terrorism that we do hear about, have been discovered and dealt with through good old fashioned police work. Seriously, the police deal with terrorism in Britain, France, Italy and Germany (I have no clue about Poland). As a favor, I linked the first Google search for you.

Because the USA is new to the "zomg terrorists!111" game, they've gone with the military model. It puts us in fairly poor company when you look at the international scene and has handicapped US efforts at generating human intel sources.