IP: Re: FBI gets cash to spend on anti-encryption research

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 09:13:06 -0400
> From: Brent Hunsaker <brent.hunsaker () usa alcatel com>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Re: IP: FBI gets cash to spend on anti-encryption research
>
> David,
> The first bullet is discussing code breaking. It will go to the NSA (which is
> the only agency that can purchase encryption/decryption/code-breaking devices
> for the US government) for the technology they need to break the encryption
> coding used on the internet. My guess is that they are finding code that they
> cannot break. Possibly hard encrypted messages. Industrial espionage has been
> wide spread in the US since the end of the cold war. The internet is becoming
> the best transmission medium available.
>
> Just another thought, there are portions of the telecomm system where the
> telecomm company encrypts blocks or trunks of telephony and data. This has 
> been
> done for the US govenment for decades. I would expect that other countries are
> doing the same. This is going beyond PGP and the little guy or gal. When
> industrial spys are communicating with each other within the borders of 
> the USA
> the only agency that can monitor is the FBI.
>
> For the second bullet my guess is for the next generation of monitoring 
> system.
> $7M will bring them up to a level to start policing the internet just a little
> bit better. The new generation of telecomm equipement is beyond the technology
> they have. The SONET rings in the field are now being upgraded to OC-192 
> rates.
> The technology we are deploying into the field closer to the home and through
> out the system is out stripping their current monitoring technologies. When we
> start deploying Fiber-to-the-User there will no longer be a wire to tap into.
> At that time phone channels will be caried by ATM cells or IP.
>
> If they do not upgrade, they will lose what access they have now.  In the 
> scifi
> movies where the police officer has to break into the fiber trunk to monitor,
> decrypt and record communications has become reality.
>
> Brent Hunsaker



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