Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re:We ARE Being Watched!!(Links to older info)

Author:Paul Hardwick
Posted:5/28/1999; 11:02:48 AM
Topic:We ARE Being Watched!!!
Msg #:6850 (In response to 6847)
Prev/Next:6849 / 6851

I am glad to see some breadth being added to the audience that at least hears about things like Echelon. It has been in the news over the years but never seems to come out of the back pages of most mainstream publications. FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) had labeled it one of the most important uncovered stories of either 1997 or 1998 (I forget).

Privacy and Cryptography are two of the things I follow on my News/WebLog at http://www.MacRonin.com/news.html Below are some items I culled from my archive pages (Back over 2 years) that you might be interested in.

Maybe folks will start DISCUSSing the topic and take it seriously.

==Paul (another concerned reader)

QA Information Security AB - Codename: Echelon.

"ZDTV": High Tech Snooping. More about the "NSA"'s ECHELON project

TechWeb - Report: U.S. Uses Key Escrow To Steal Secrets. European plans for controlling encryption software are nothing to do with law enforcement and everything to do with U.S. industrial espionage, according to a report released by the European Parliament on Friday.

The working document for the Scientific and Technological Options Assessment panel said the United States has tried to persuade European Union countries to adopt its key escrow or key recovery policies -- allowing backdoor access to encryption programs -- saying this was necessary to read messages exchanged by criminals.

But the report details how the UKUSA alliance -- made up of the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand -- has used its secret Echelon global spying network to intercept confidential company communications and give them to favored competitors. Thomson S.A., located in Paris, and Airbus Industrie, based in Blagnac Cedex, France, are said to have lost contracts as a result of information passed to rivals.

"The U.S. government misled states in the EU and [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] about the true intention of its policy," the http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/stoa_cover.htm">report adds.

"Between 1993 and 1997 police representatives were not involved in the "NSA" [National Security Agency]-led policy-making process for key recovery. Despite this, during the same period the U.S. government repeatedly presented its policy as being motivated by the stated needs of law-enforcement agencies."

Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore?. Would you trust your private key to this agency? Since 1956, the NSA has had a secret deal with the Swiss company that supplies the world with crypto

Once the cipher machines were rigged to include the secret decryption key, the BND and NSA codebreakers could use the transmitted key to read any message sent by Crypto AG's 120 country customers.

NETWORKING WITH SPOOKS. Another article from the Covert Action Quarterly.

Researchers Crack Code in Cell Phones. In successfully cracking a widely used encryption method designed to prevent the cloning of digital cellular phones, a group of University of California computer researchers believe they have stumbled across evidence that the system was deliberately weakened to permit government surveillance.

Hmmm ... very interesting!!! Especially in light of yesterdays mention of an article from Covert Action Quarterly mentioning the same thing having been done once before in Switzerland for the NSA. Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore?.

FBI "Cries Wolf" Over Hackers?. A privacy expert has challenged the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to produce evidence of its recent claim that computer-related security breaches have risen by 250 percent in the past two years.

Russian secret police want to monitor Internet …. According to a draft of the project, which is being discussed by Russian communications agencies, SORM -- the acronym for ``system for ensuring investigative activity'' -- would force all providers of Internet services to install a snooping device in thei main computers and build a dedicated information superhighway connecting it with the security agency FSB, formerly the KGB.

Sounds like something our boys ("FBI", "NSA", "CIA", etc.) could appreciate{qbref("smiley") }

"CNN" - The long, strong arm of the NSA. They might be living the telephone companies fantasy "Reach out and touch someone." {qbref("smiley") } :-)

http://www.caq.com/CAQ/CAQ59GlobalSnoop.html EXPOSING THE GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

NSA Spy Station F83. May 31 1998 FOCUS Last week a German politician claimed a shadowy US installation in Britain is spying on Europe's business secrets. Nicholas Rufford investigates a base able to tap into any call, fax or e-mail, and finds out who it really targets





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