IP: Tapping the Internet

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

> From: "Kai Lui" <kai () infohouse com> 
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu> 
>
>
> Careful, they might hear you 
>
> By DUNCAN CAMPBELL
>
> Australia has become the first country openly to admit that it takes part in
> a global electronic surveillance system that intercepts the private and
> commercial international communications of citizens and companies from its
> own and other countries. The disclosure is made today in Channel 9's Sunday
> program by Martin Brady, director of the Defence Signals Directorate in
> Canberra.
>
> Mr Brady's decision to break ranks and officially admit the existence of a
> hitherto unacknowledged spying organisation called UKUSA is likely to
> irritate his British and American counterparts, who have spent the past 50
> years trying to prevent their own citizens from learning anything about them
> or their business of ``signals intelligence'' - ``sigint'' for short.
>
> *******
>
> Now, due to a fast-growing UKUSA system called Echelon, millions of messages
> are automatically intercepted every hour, and checked according to criteria
> supplied by intelligence agencies and governments in all five UKUSA
> countries. The intercepted signals are passed through a computer system
> called the Dictionary, which checks each new message or call against
> thousands of ``collection'' requirements. The Dictionaries then send the
> messages into the spy agencies' equivalent of the Internet, making them
> accessible all over the world.
>
>
> Full story at:
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990523/news/news3.html