FBI plans new Net-tapping push

CNET News.com ^ | July 7, 2006 | By Declan McCullagh

[NewzGuru]

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require
Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police
surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in
backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned."

"One source, who asked not to be identified because of the
sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its
CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007."

[gr8eman]

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation..."

Anyone who can read past that is a moron.

[webstersII]

":Anyone who can read past that is a moron."

It's not unusual for an agency like the FBI to put together a wish list for legislation like this, even to the point of writing up some of the verbiage.

[gr8eman]

...and then drunk Uncle Teddy's boys get their grubby hands on it. The FBI does not draft legislation. Anyone who insinuates such is relying on ignorant people to make a point. Kind of like beginning a sentence with..."Since there were no weapons of mass destruction..." Complete BS!

[MMcC]

Isn't this just their plan to deal with tapping into VOIP? They can already tap a land line with a warrant, this just gives them an easy way to do the same thing for people using Voice Over IP.

As long as they have to have the proper warrants to do it, i really don't have much of a problem.

[sten]

actually, i believe the hardware voip providers are supposed to provide for a wire tap capabilitiy as per the '94 telecommunications act.

anyhow, this type of tap is totally worthless and will only be effective towards low level criminals. I doubt if it'd work at all against terrorists. keep in mind, these terrorists are coming from (for the most part) saudi.. and the entire internet of saudi goes through a single choke point (immaum university .. sp? .. in riyadh). This would be the goal of the FBI, to monitor all traffic across the internet in the US (or the world). Since these guys have been working with 'tapped' bandwidth for years, I doubt they would stop using those techniques when they come here.

even fully tapped, and potentially looking over my shoulder, you'd never know i just passed some info if i was in an online game and just walking around. the game character's location would be the information, like typing on a keyboard. ok, might be tougher to pass files...and take longer for a simple sms... but do-able. don't think they are hampered by the encryption restrictions of only using 256bit keys. a single 1024 bit AES key would brown down greenbelt.

[webstersII]

"Complete BS!"

So you are saying the FBI wasn't involved in this, didn't give any counsel or their ideas?

[gr8eman]

The FBI is involved in everything. How do you think the Isreali Air Force shot a missle into the Pentagon without being noticed? How do you think the people who supposedly died on the flight that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon have not been heard from?

[webstersII]

Now you're getting scary. You sound like that professor from U. of Wisconsin on Hannity & Colmes last night.

Unless you forgot to put the /sarcasm tag on that one.

[gr8eman]

I am just sick of conspiracy nuts whose bad character (or lack thereof) compels them to distort reality and propose alternate realities as fact and then try to push it off on others. There's one (nut, that is) that sits across from me here!

[webstersII]

Dude, try some decaf.

It's not a conspiracy theory to suggest that the FBI was consulted on this legislation. It happens all the time on the Hill. The staffers who write the bills get input from gov't agencies who have in-depth knowledge of a subject.