Saudi Surveillance

[Axon]

Software engineer Moxie Marlinspike was asked to build an online surveillance operation for a Saudi telecom. This was their pitch.

http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/


This news link caught my attention while browsing some security based websites. To what extent governments are disparate in order to keep their citizens under constant watch. This concept of war on terrorism that emerged after the 2001 attacks will have a devastating effect on people's privacy worldwide.

[vezzy]

Except that government surveillance and privacy invasion dates much further back than 2001, such as the FBI's COINTELPRO lists.

It has definitely worsened post-9/11 with the rise of the PATRIOT Act, though.

[Axon]

Except that government surveillance and privacy invasion dates much further back than 2001, such as the FBI's COINTELPRO lists.

It has definitely worsened post-9/11 with the rise of the PATRIOT Act, though.

I've read some interesting information on the web many years ago, the fbi installed some type of device or something like this on the internet cables that will allow them to monitor the traffic of every citizen using the internet.


Is this true? Do you have any sources that would shed more light on this?

[Kulverstukas]

Ha! this is starting to sound a lot like "Person of interest" tv series. Srs.

[vezzy]

Why, as a matter of fact, that's true (for phones).

It's called DCSNet and it's a three-component point-and-click surveillance system that can wiretap any telephone device in the USA.

https://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/wiretap
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/08/eff-documents-shed-light-fbi-electronic-surveillance-technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCSNet

As for computers, the FBI long used an integrated packet sniffing system called Carnivore that was installed at various locations (it required a physical workstation), mostly ISPs. This was from 1997 to 2005. They still do it, but they've switched to more advanced software since then, such as NarusInsight.

Despite all this, it's still kind of redundant, since the majority of all worldwide communication signals (everything from phone calls and fax to email and satellites) is intercepted by the NSA's ECHELON, with stations being all around the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

tl;dr you're fucked no matter what

[WirelessDesert]

Ha! this is starting to sound a lot like "Person of interest" tv series. Srs.

Love that serie. Hate the concept. Wargame 1 & 2 would also fit in.


But really, censoring and monitoring peoples traffic feels just wrong, as a person.
As a governement, I could see it very profiting. Good thing he didn't accept the job and instead published it on his blog.


Btw. R.I.P Aaron Swartz