IP: Now Big Brother keeps eye on e-mail

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> 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
>
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> 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