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FBI Wiretapping Audit Secrets Uncovered Via Ctrl+C

mytrip notes a story in Wired's Threat Level blog on the latest boneheaded government moves with redaction. (We've been discussing redaction follies here for years.) This time it's an FBI report (PDF) on implementing CALEA — you can select text from redacted areas, copy it, and paste into a text editor, as University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze discovered. From Wired: "Once again, supposedly sensitive information blacked out from a government report turns out to be visible by computer experts armed with the Ctrl+C keys — and that information turns out to be not very sensitive after all... [Among] the tidbits considered too sensitive to be aired publicly: The FBI paid Verizon $2,500 apiece to upgrade 1,140 old telephone switches. Oddly the report didn't redact the total amount paid to the telecom — slightly more than $2.9 million dollars — but somehow the bad guys will win if they knew the number of switches and the cost paid."

2 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Secrets Kept to avoid Embarrassment by Iamthecheese · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I am an ass clown, you insensitive clod!

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    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  2. Re:Too much UNIX for me by SpinyManiac · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Right, Emacs runs on both Linux and Windows
    In soviet Russia?
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    It's never too late to have a happy childhood.