IETF and wiretapping standards

Anonymous Coward writes "I just noticed that the IETF has sent out a request for discussion dealing with the implementation of wiretapping in Internet Protocols. The motivation is based on laws some Governments have about telecommunication systems." The message and subscription information to their discussion email list, punningly titled "Raven", are available on the web. Oh, and "some Governments" includes the U.S. and most other countries, so I hope the IETF will get some good feedback.

Comments

IETF recommendations

[Ledge Kindred]

If the IETF gets feedback indicating that they will have to figure out some way of implementing "digital wiretapping" with whatever existing/new standards, I highly urge everyone to recommend that they place them into the "MAY" or "OPTIONAL" categories of the specs.

That way, if a company wants to implement and sell a product that meets the standard in a way that fascistic governments who don't believe in personal freedoms will let them build and sell them, they can do so by implementing the "OPTIONAL" Backdoor parts of the spec.

Those groups who prefer security over letting Uncle Sam (or whichever hacker group out there is simply smart enough to read the specs and implement their own snooping software that follows the "RFC-'1984' - Government Backdoors into Network Protocols" spec) from eavesdropping, like the OpenBSD guys, can simply ignore the "OPTIONAL" part of the spec that outlines the backdoor without breaking the entire thing.

Sorry for the emotionally-loaded phrasing, but this kind of crap really gets me steamed. I'm amazed on a daily basis at how willing our governments are (especially here in the US) to simply trample our civil/constitutional rights for the Holy purpose of "National Security" whatever that means.

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