[105222] in Cypherpunks
Re: Spy News
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Young)
Sun Nov 8 21:25:26 1998
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 21:01:45 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
In-Reply-To: <v04003a03b26bd077c60f@[24.1.50.17]>
Reply-To: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Steve Schear wrote:
>With the advent of fiber optics capable of repeater-less operation
>over transoceanic distances, one would think this sort of underwater
>surveillance would be come much more difficult.
Since our first post we've skimmed the book for the tech which is far
overshadowed by war story-type derring-do and it turns out there is
little revelation of specific means and methods.
As Renegade noted, the Soviets were tipped to the program by
NSA's Pelton, as well as by John Walker and cohorts several
years before the USG learned the Soviets were aware of it,
though one ONI officer suspected a spy about the time of Pelton's
treachery, made a report of his suspicions and was ignored.
The book claims the program continues against unidentified targets.
Which comes back to Steve's point, what might the technology be
for sucking data out of fiber optic or more sophisticated conduits?
For surely covert snooping technology is advancing as fast as
communication methodologies, probably being developed by
the telco labs hand in hand as with GAK, CALEA and our disarming
Internet.
