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US Fears Loss of ICQ Honeypot
AHuxley writes "US law enforcement bodies view the sale of instant messaging service ICQ to a Russian company as a threat to homeland security. In spring 2010, Russia's largest Internet investment company, Digital Sky Technologies, agreed to purchase the service for $187 million from AOL. The US is sure that most criminals use ICQ and, therefore, constant access to the ICQ servers is needed to track them down. As the system is based in Israel, American security service have had access. The article concludes, 'Lawyers [of unspecified nationality] say that to block the deal the US Committee on Foreign Investment needed to cancel it no later than within 30 days after the deal has been announced — so unless the rules are broken, nothing can be changed.'"
Uh-oh!
As the system is based in Israel, American security service have had access.
While ICQ was founded in Israel, it's been owned by AOL for over a decade. The ICQ network has been integrated with AOL's AIM network many years ago and the servers are located in AOL's network supercenter in Virginia.
I dunno what's more shocking, that the government thinks ICQ has any relevance with anything anymore or that someone thought the network was worth $186 MILLION dollars. That's just insane.
AIM has supported this for years, it's called Direct Connection. Trillian and Pidgin both support IM encryption as well.
Another option is to run your own XMPP server, which can at least guarantee that conversations on that server are safe, but not necessarily those with people on other servers.
Direct Connection has been removed more recent versions of AIM because its risks outweighed its benefits. Disclosing your IP address to somebody you barely or don't know is risky. Disclosing your IP address and the fact you're using an certain versions AIM is an invitation to hackers.
Perfectly legal for the US to intervene in a sale from an Israeli company to a Russian one? If that's truly the case, the US has far, far too much power.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The Israeli company (ICQ) has been a subsidiary of an American company (AOL) since 1998.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The real question is why to the Russians want it?
Its because ICQ is the most popular IM program used in Russian speaking countries.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
No, it isn't, and no, it doesn't.
There is no "British Constitution of 1689". The "British Constitution" is not a written document but a set of traditions. You may be thinking of the 1689 Bill of Rights, which certainly did inspire similar enumerations by states and eventually by the federal government, but it's a far stretch to say that our Bill of Rights is based on that document.
And the U.S. Constitution does not have any passage about a "right to engage in commerce without interference". (Nor, from my admitted quick scan, does the 1689 Bill of Rights) The Constitution does, though, explicitly stipulate the power of the federal government to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes" (Article I, Section 8). As AOL is an American company, and the buyer is Russian, the feds have legitimate Constitutional authority to regulate the transaction as they wish.
May I suggest you read the document in question before you make statements about what it stipulates?
I tell ya, conservatives and propertarians remind me more and more often of that old Star Trek (TOS) episode where there's a barbarian tribe that worships the Constitution but has no idea what it actually says. ("E pleb neesta...")
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
They aren't going to MSN. Criminals don't want to be spammed any more than the rest of us.