OT: Is your government an Internet spy?

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Is your government an Internet spy?

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Do they know what you look at? Will they know where you've been? Is Big Brother reading your packets in a similar way that they scan overseas telephone calls? I know this sounds like an introduction to an Art Bell segment. But, it's for real and it's true. You can bet the U.S. government will soon be spending your tax dollars in an attempt to read your e-mail. The government of England has already made it clear that they want more eavesdropping. In the UK there is a new piece of handiwork making an attempt to require all Internet Service Providers to allow the British government tap into their networks. For details, see Home Office's Interception of Communications report.

It's not that difficult. Hackers and crackers do it all the time. For those of you who don't know the difference between a hacker and a cracker, a hacker is someone that invents a method to break into something. A cracker is someone that uses the tool or method a hacker created to break into something. The hacker's motivation is similar to that of climbing a mountain. It's there. It requires skill. It's a challenge. Easy to see that there would be more crackers than hackers. The government of England will become a great big cracker. It will pay one or more companies to become its hacker developers.

First let's quickly review what the Internet is. Then we can better discuss the logistics of how this will work.

As you may know, the Internet is a mesh of interconnected networks. Yes, no one owns the Internet. But, there are people that do in fact own huge chunks of it. MCI has a big one. Sprint has a big one. Cable and Wireless bought a chunk of MCI's to gain a bigger network. Then there is AOL, AT&T and many others. Each of these is interconnected to the other physically as well as on paper. The paper part consists of lengthy agreements that allow the transmission of each other's packets through each other's gateways.

What's a gateway? A gateway is like a bridge or tunnel that your packet drives over or through as it attempts to reach its destination. The destination is a machine on a network located somewhere on the other side of a gateway.

No single network can disconnect from the other for fear of having a customer complain that they can't reach a specific website or send e-mail to their cousin on the competitor's network. If we were to apply some Internet Physics, we would discover the following: here comes a deep thought, ready?

Each network depends on the existence of the other, to a degree that is directly proportional to the specific amount of packets that contain a destination on the other competitor's network. This is rarely an equal value at any one gateway.

Speaking of gateways, governments will place machines between gateways to eavesdrop on your packets. They know where your packet came from. They know where it's going. The packet tells them this. They can now wait (not much of a wait, really just milliseconds) and watch for the return packets that are destined to be displayed on your screen.

How easy is this? It's very easy. Someone is doing it at this moment. More likely someone's robot program. That's how Net crooks snatch a password or a credit card number. They find a machine that is sitting on a freeway of packet traffic. There they eavesdrop on the packets and attempt to find one that isn't scrambled with encryption. Encrypted packets they just toss. What they want is a packet that appears to have that credit card number look. If it has the look, they log it -- that is, they store it for review, test or use at a later date.

Most people know that you can prevent your credit card from being packet sniffed. You never input your card number onto a web page without double checking the little lock or key displayed on your web browser.

In our home, we often make web purchases. Nothing bad has ever happened. The order taker on an 800 number or the slip you leave behind signed at a cash register is more dangerous. That puts you at more risk than entering your card number on an encryption protected web page of a company that is "known-to-you."

Most of us already possess and use encryption for limited Internet applications. Like those which encrypt web data specific pages of credit card transactions.

Yes, technology always has a way of coming to your aid. After all, where there is a market, a solution will soon follow. So, let's take it to the next step. This would mean that we may someday see the next big wave become encrypted websites and decryption browsers. Implementation of encryption on all web page transmissions and requests. Or maybe initially it will be just the requests (your clicks) or just the response transmissions (the page data you requested that gets displayed on your screen).

The Net won't go away as a result of the Big Brother gang's eavesdropping. It's very basic. The Net is bigger than all the Big Brothers combined. Even the government of China cannot effectively filter, stop, snoop or manipulate the Net effectively.

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Bob Evans has a proven track record of identifying market opportunities and creating technology-based businesses. Most recently in 1996, Mr. Evans merged MediaCity World, an ISP founded in 1993 serving with Softnet (SOFN on NASDAQ). Now known as ISP Channel, it is the third largest cable modem service in the USA. Mr. Evans' initial investors realized a return of well over 2,000 percent. Mr. Evans is the founder of several companies including Internet Inventions Inc.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), September 24, 1999

Answers

"Uncle Bob"

I don't know if you are the "Bob Evans" mentioned in your post or whether or not you are posting this to market a service, but if anyone following this thread is curious about some of the presently existing technology, take a look at this article from Techweb.

(for educational purposes only)

"Stealth Software Rankles Privacy Advocates

A super stealthy software covertly monitors all keyboard and application activity, then invisibly e-mails a detailed report to the employees' boss. While it bolsters IT's ability to monitor workplace computer usage, it troubles privacy advocates.

The newly upgraded software, Investigator 2.0 from WinWhatWhere, runs silently, unseen by the end-user as it gathers exacting details on every keystroke touched, every menu item clicked, all the entries into a chat room, every instant message sent and all e-commerce transactions.

"You get shocking detail," said Richard Eaton, president of WinWhatWhere, in Kennewick, Wash.

In one client case, a large grocery store chain suspected an employee was wrongfully taking information. Management installed the software and discovered the suspect employee was saving accounting information onto a diskette. In other cases, employees have been busted for taking client lists and sales leads.

WinWhatWhere Customers have included sensitive government agencies, private investigators, a trucking company, a tool and die company, a penitentiary, a dentist, and several libraries. Specific customers have included the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Mint in Denver, Exxon, Delta Airlines, Ernst & Young, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, and Lockheed Martin.

(snip)

Pricing runs from $99 for a single user to $5,500 for site licensing."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 24, 1999.


Too late.

:snip: The global system has a highly secret codename -- ECHELON. It is by far the most significant system of which the GCSB is a part, and many of the GCSB's daily operations are based around it. The intelligence agencies will be shocked to see it named and described for the first time in print. Each station in the ECHELON network has computers that automatically search through the millions of intercepted messages for ones containing pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and e-mail addresses. For the frequencies and channels selected at a station, every word of every message is automatically searched (they do not need your specific telephone number or Internet address on the list).

:snip:

see http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/sp/sp_c2.htm

link

Many other places to look, in particular search for New Zealand's connection, and how this was made public...

-- Harl (harlanquin@aol.hell), September 24, 1999.


Nope...I assure you that I am not Bob Evans. Our first names are a coincidence. My bio is as follows:

Uncle Bob has a proven track record of identifying nothing of importance to most people. Most recently in 1996, Uncle Bob merged onto a freeway. Now known as the Riverside Freeway, it is the largest freeway within close proximity to his home. Uncle Bob's initial investors are nonexistent. Uncle Bob is the founder of several small coins in the local Pep Boys parking lot.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), September 25, 1999.


That's my belly laugh for the evening, Uncle B.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 25, 1999.


Uncle Bob,

I think this article was written in 1996, and although some beginners might be suprised, it is really nothing new. He talks about encrypted web pages and decrypting browsers that have been used for years.

Basically when you are connected to the Internet it is like putting your whole life on a billboard for the world to see, or at least everything that is on your computer. The government does not need to get permission from an ISP to spy on us, but there is so much anti-government sentiment all over that they can't keep up with it. The people who are going to get busted are the ones talking about how many guns they have and how many people they want to kill, especially since the high school shootings. Of course they can also scan phone calls, banking activity, and pretty much anything electronically transmitted.

The thing to remember is to be careful about putting certain key words close together because that might make them want to spy on you. You shouldn't say things like:

"government" and "sucks" in the same sentence, see what I mean?...

Oh, got to get the door, someone's here... hmmm, a black van... who the hell is that wearing black masks....Oh crap, they have guns!!!

brrrrrrr, brrrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrr

ratatatattatat... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!...

-- @ (@@@.@), September 25, 1999.



Is the government an internet spy? Probably.

This happened a few days ago to me in the boonies of California. I work as a Handyman now and was out in no mans land to see a customer. Before I arrived I was followed by a deputy, when I arrived at the home it turned out the son was a volunteer fireman and therefore was tuned into the emergency, police, fire band, or whatever they call it. The speaker was directly over my head in the garage where the leaky pipe was. Over the radio I listened to them talking about the address I was working at, and identified the vehicles that were heading my way. They parked on the property for a while, observed and then left. I listened to them over the radio as they left.

Just because you are doing nothing wrong does not mean they are not watching you. By the way, the area I was in is infested with "crank" Labs and thus the observation.

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), September 25, 1999.


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