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IP: Now Big Brother keeps eye on e-mail
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 04:36:54 -0500
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu> http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/12/08/timfgnrus01004.html?1124027 December 8 1999 RUSSIA Now Big Brother keeps eye on e-mail BY GILES WHITTELL BIG BROTHER is no longer watching Russia's citizens at every turn, but many of them fear he is reading their e-mails. The successor to the KGB has set up a network of data links connected to every major Russian Internet service provider that allows unlimited monitoring of private e-mails and electronic banking. Activists claim that the network is already being abused for profit, theft and blackmail. The System for OperationalInvestigative Activities (SORM in Russian) was introduced quietly late last year by government regulations that needed no parliamentary approval. Considered one of Russia's most ambitious internal espionage programmes since the fall of the Soviet Union, it is now in full force, according to an investigation in yesterday's Moscow Times. It allegedly has the co-operation of 350 Internet companies, who had to pay for its construction . Russia's unloved Federal Security Service (FSB), which took over the KGB's domestic duties, is able to monitor electronic communication without the need for search warrants.The FSB and its defenders in parliament insist that this is merely a cost-effective means of surveillance on crime in cyberspace, but few doubt that the FSB is not above selling its information to the highest bidder. Westerners and middle-class Russians in Moscow who increasingly rely on e-mail for cheap long-distance communication were alarmed by yesterday's report =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Geoff_Goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558 "Success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get" http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html
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- IP: Now Big Brother keeps eye on e-mail Dave Farber (Dec 08)