And I thought it was bad enough when Saudi Arabia and India were pressing Research in Motion hard about making their technology available to be able to spy on people, now this is an issue in the US? WTF?

Their encryption is a good thing and used as a compettive advantage over other service providers. Now governments around the world including our own are once again messing with the free market under the guise of freedom from terror. It was bad enough when the Bush Admin did it. Now the Obama Admin is not only continuing those freedom eroding policies but expanding them.

I could go on about all the privacy implications, net neutrality, and more, but I'll spare all of you my rants... for now. Maybe I should turn this into a talk/article. This kind of stuff really gets me.


For original story:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/27/seeking-expand-internet-wiretaps/

Don

There is nothing new in this seriously , the government of USA always think that they are superior to everyone in everything .

I just saw the following link which is quite a bit related about their policies .

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPXAkFdn9sY

"The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday."

So what. Honestly, if one has nothing to hide, one need not worry really. The reality of this is that no matter WHAT is said via government, how do they propose to enforce this. They'd have to outright ban encryption. Let's look at what's said: The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

So my provider can tap my phone. Doesn't stop me from inventing my own language or slang. The communications provider did their job. I modified my needs to fit what I needed to do, communicate securely.

This is where government will always fail. They can pass this law and unbeknownst to many, most communications providers have to meet this anyway via way of CALEA, so its nothing new. I wonder what the administration intends on doing when the following occurs:

Evil person using cash goes to Times Square NYC and purchases a cellular with cash. While en-route to Chicago, evil person stops in Jersey and picks up three calling cards. He uses those calling cards to call a VoIP provider number from a VoIP shop in Poland. Places threatening calls and makes rogue plans...

So - the government can hear the call sure. Who cares?

Week one
1) The government needs to get all the paperwork in order and hopes that when delivered to their attaches in Canada, the Canadian government complies.

Weeks one through two
2) After getting the records from the Canadian provider, they trace the call as coming from a calling card. They need to discover who owns the DID and who sells the calling card. Investigation + More subpoenas

Weeks two through three
3) After discovering the Acme Payphone Card distributed the PIN code and numbers, they trace the call as originating from a phone that was sold in batches to a NYC store. Investigation + more subpoenas

Weeks three through four
4) After getting subpoenas for sales records at this NYC store, they determine that the buyer paid in cash and there is no record available. No cameras at the store so they can't identify the person(s)

Four weeks is peanuts. The reality is, situations like this lead to dead ends. Consider the following, I compromise a host in Germany. I use the German machine to compromise a host in China. I use the Chinese machine to compromise a VoIP account in the US. I use the compromised VoIP account to forward calls. I buy a few calling cards and daisy chain them through a cellular I bought off say Craigslist. The cellular was stolen, I needed it for one task.

--- Not going to stop criminals intent on doing something.

Might find cheaters, might find people who've made mistakes, but the people they're targeting this towards (terrorists, really evil people) are oblivious to this and won't care at the end of the day. It's easier to skate around with other technology (crypto + stego) than it is to say: "I think I'll use my Blackberry for Jihad!" Terrorist and truly evil/wicked individuals aren't dumb shmoes.

We've been lulled into a false sense of superiority by the bad plots they've been doing. Shoes, underwear, fluid, car bombers, printer cartridges, etc that haven't worked.

Then there are the easy to dupe / entrap kids they've been hitting up. Like the Jihad Fitness guru (Mohamed Osman Mohamud).

There are low hanging fruit on every side.

I want to note that the government cannot even be trusted to use the powers that in already has, within the scope of the law. It has been repeated been found to abuse the powers given to it. Therefore, it would be difficult for me to support such an action without significant public interaction of this issue.

I for one forsee the second that law passes, that terror networks go deeper underground. We are making it more difficult for ourselves.

We cant, and they will. But until people are willing to get more involved in the daily political process, and demand action on our will, we will continue to see fear ruining our society.