Will we have to give up Juice to fight Terrorism?

[Texas Guns]

Very serious questions were raised last night after watching a program on tv. It has long been rumored but denied by officials that an Echelon existed.....until now. It was openly admitted that The Echelon can intercept all communication through analog and fiber optic technology and has. I am not tech minded whatsoever, so most of it was greek. Basic point any phone call, email, fax (encrypted or not) can be intercepted and traced. Of course they are looking for communication with key words, phrases, or from certain intelligence, but the point being that what exists now will only get more stringent as terrorist attacks now infiltrate the United States. Within matter of seconds, officials were able to tap into one of the telephone calls that went out from the highjacked plane that went down in Pennsylvania (a passenger calling to his wife) and were able to hear everything that went on in that plane until it crashed.

We may have to sacrifice by giving up certain rights to be able to win this war. Namely our right to privacy. How many of you would actually give up the process of ordering steriods for fear of your privacy and communication being intercepted. Not being paranoid, and I know that what they are looking for is terrorist commication and codes, but will they have to filter through some of our business to get to those communications?

We have never had to worry about this much before, but we have never had to worry about terrorist attacks on US soil either...Until now.

Just an observation and I would like to know what some of your decisions would be if it came to that? These are some questions that need to be asked and considered within this brotherhood.

 

[Sassy69]

I can't find the article right now - I saw it on CNN.com about the issues that are coming up with regard to expanding the government's right to wiretap for purposes of national security. The problem with most laws is that they were created with a specific purpose in mind, but once they are on the books, they can be used (or manipulated) for other purposes that are not necessarily good.

 

[TheProject]

Okay, as a techie, here's what I know:

There exists a technology called Carnivore, used by the FBI to monitor internet traffic. Wired.com had an article last week indicating that the FBI was picking up the internet circuit charges for certain companies that allowed them to place this device on their networks. Carnivore is, from what I understand, a filtering device that allows them to capture e-mails and other internet traffic based on certain criteria that they can set. It may or may not be keywords (like bomb, terrorist, etc.). Hotmail is supposedly one company that agreed to do this.

I know that many companies can purchase software to monitor their employees use, based on keywords. My company has one such piece of software. It can safely be assumed that if it's commercially available, the government has something better.

What I read about Echelon, both on CNN and MSNBC, is that it is a communications monitoring system that relies largely on satellite signals. The European parliament passed a resolution in July that basically said they believed Echelon existed, whether the US admits it or not. The major concern with Echelon to this point has been that the US would be able to gather information for US companies that would give them a competitive advantage over European companies.

Now, with all that out of the way, how worried do you have to be? Not much, in my opinion.

First of all, consider the amount of traffic that exists on the internet right now. We look at maybe 1% of the internet usage that goes on in our company. Imagine if you're trying to do that for the entire internet. They tell it find the word "bomb" and how many e-mails do they find that refer to something as "da bomb"?

Secondly, while encrypted traffic, can be broken, it is neither quick nor easy. If you encrypt your e-mails with something free like PGP, that lessens your risk.

Thirdly, look at another major internet crime: child pornography. How do they catch most of these people? By sticking a live agent in a chat room, and setting up stings. If the technology were very effective at this point, my feeling is that it would be used more often to catch people like this.

Bottom line: I think, if you're careful, your risk is not likely to significantlly increase. By careful, I mean don't use your e-mail at work to discuss ANYTHING remotely illegal or even against company policy. It can be seen by your IT department, and unless you've been given the right to privacy by your company, they can view your e-mail at will because it's not really your e-mail. Use encrypted e-mail, and common sense, and I think you'll be okay for the forseeable future.

Sorry for the long post, hope it's not too much information.

 

[Texas Guns]

Wonderful information!!!! Project, please post your reply on the threads I have on the anabolic and chat boards. Your knowledge is well needed!!!

 

[manny78]

Its called: PGP key, Elite/Hush account and Proxies. George's encrypted servers are located outside the US so you shouldn't worry about it.

 

[TheProject]

Will do Tex. Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Texas Guns]

Messages are also sent unencrypted if the recipient does not have an elitefitness or hushmail account. What to do in that scenario?

 

[manny78]

Messages are also sent unencrypted if the recipient does not have an elitefitness or hushmail account. What to do in that scenario?

PGP key, you encrypt your message then you send it with your public key. PGP can be integrated with Outlook.

 

[TheProject]

Manny's right, you can use a PGP key to encrypt your message. There's quite a few freeware PGP applications out there. My familiarity with them is a little limited. I've only used one at work, and have never had the need to encrypt my own e-mail.

The only thing I would add is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Just because you send an e-mail encrypted doesn't mean that it will come back encrypted.