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Phone Taps Just Got Impossible
strategypage.com ^ | 4/12/06 | James Dunnigan

Posted on 04/12/2006 12:45:55 PM PDT by teddyruxpin

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Phone Taps Just Got Impossible

April 12, 2006: Eavesdropping on phone calls just got a lot harder. Phil Zimmermann, the guy who invented PGP encryption for Internet mail, has developed a similar product, Zfone, for VOIP (telephone calls over the Internet). Zfone, like PGP, is free and easy to use. PGP drove intelligence agencies nuts, because it gave criminals and terrorists access to industrial grade cryptography. PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down. Zfone, however, uses stronger encryption. This means more delays, perhaps fatal delays, in finding out what the bad guys are saying. There's no immediate solution for this problem, unless Phil Zimmermann has provided a back door in Zfone for the intel folks. That is unlikely, but at least possible.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: counterterrorism; encryption; pgp; voip; wiretaps; zfone
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I read that today in FYEOExpress. First, the reportage on the *legal* NSA wiretapping inspires terrorists to use harder to track pre-paid phones, now VoIP calls (which they use a *lot*) will be encrypted, for free! I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction. Yes, keep our agencies from listening to our calls!

[sarcasm]I feel so much safer now.[/sarcasm]

1 posted on 04/12/2006 12:45:57 PM PDT by teddyruxpin
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To: teddyruxpin
"PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down. Zfone, however, uses stronger encryption"

So...how are wiretaps impossible? Of course they could always get a warrant and have no delays.
2 posted on 04/12/2006 12:50:54 PM PDT by tfecw (It's for the children)
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To: teddyruxpin

Just you wait till they start using telepathy. No trail whatsoever.


3 posted on 04/12/2006 12:52:06 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: GSlob

What do you mean "wait until"? You obviously have no idea of what The Rove is capable of.


4 posted on 04/12/2006 12:55:40 PM PDT by shezza (God bless our military heroes)
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To: shezza

BUMP!


5 posted on 04/12/2006 12:56:53 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Multiculturalism is the white flag of a dying country)
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To: shezza

By "them" I meant the bad guys, not Karl.


6 posted on 04/12/2006 12:59:01 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: GSlob

Ah, very well then. Carry on.


7 posted on 04/12/2006 12:59:58 PM PDT by shezza (God bless our military heroes)
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To: teddyruxpin
Phone Taps Just Got Impossible

But phone reveille is still acceptable, right?

8 posted on 04/12/2006 1:01:09 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: tfecw

I'm confused, you seem to have not read the entirety of the very sentence you quote. Here, I'll highlight it: "Zfone, however, uses stronger encryption".

Thus, while PGP might have slowed them down, Zfone's encryption makes it 'impossible.'

Further, this has nothing to do with a warrant, clearly you don't understand encryption if you think a warrant will help.


9 posted on 04/12/2006 1:02:57 PM PDT by teddyruxpin
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To: GSlob

RV bump....

hehehehh


(somehow I KNEW you were gonna write that)


10 posted on 04/12/2006 1:03:18 PM PDT by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
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To: GSlob
Hey! I'm listening to conspiracy theory day over on the Medved show...and from what I'm hearing, I think they already ARE using telepathy.


Got any extra tinfoil on you?
11 posted on 04/12/2006 1:05:03 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: theDentist

That was an absolutely horrible joke. May I have another? ;P


12 posted on 04/12/2006 1:06:43 PM PDT by teddyruxpin
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To: teddyruxpin

Not much of a story really. It is going to happen eventually. Point to point encryption for all types of communication is going to become normal.

I'm all for it. Sure, it gives some tools to the enemy who will probably be early adopters, but the very act of using such encryption should single them out from all the clear traffic. As for the information gathering tools we'd lose, new ones will arise. We can't freeze the enemy to using certain tools, and we can't limit ourselves eithers. With the breaking of the story of the wire tapping, the terrorists gained valuable intelligence on how we were disrupting their operations. They're already adapting, and now we have to find and adapt to them.

Information doesn't exist in a vacuum. If the terrorists are passing information through digital means, somewhere that information is unencrypted. Given that encrypted traffic can be sniffed for, tracked, rerouted - the terrorists may just discover that encrypted communications can reveal their agents, expose their agents, or may just be unreliable.

Oh, maybe not yet... But give our people time to work on the problem. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to accomplish the mission. It is a bastard of an inconvenience, but it was bound to happen.


13 posted on 04/12/2006 1:06:44 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

14 posted on 04/12/2006 1:09:31 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: coconutt2000
Sure, it gives some tools to the enemy who will probably be early adopters,

It also gives tools to dissidents in Iran, N. Korea, China and Saudi Arabia.

15 posted on 04/12/2006 1:11:29 PM PDT by Tribune7
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To: teddyruxpin

No. :)


16 posted on 04/12/2006 1:12:13 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: teddyruxpin

"I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction."

The right of Americans to be left alone by the government unless they are doing something illegal is fundamental to the American way of life.


17 posted on 04/12/2006 1:14:11 PM PDT by gondramB (Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.)
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To: teddyruxpin; Physicist
PGP might have slowed them down

Public key PGP encryption can be broken?

18 posted on 04/12/2006 1:14:34 PM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: teddyruxpin
Further, this has nothing to do with a warrant, clearly you don't understand encryption if you think a warrant will help.

The only thing I could figure out was he meant a warrant to plant a bug (listening device).

19 posted on 04/12/2006 1:15:35 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
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To: theDentist

LOL!!!


20 posted on 04/12/2006 1:15:55 PM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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