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Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <v04210100b46c3822f6c2@[24.218.56.92]> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.58.19991201133409.00a14470@202.54.12.17> Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 10:42:27 -0500 To: Udhay Shankar N <udhay@pobox.com>, cryptography@c2.net From: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable At 1:34 PM -0800 12/1/99, Udhay Shankar N wrote: >>From: owner-cwd@vorlon.mit.edu >>Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 15:18:43 -0500 >>To: undisclosed-recipients: ; >> >>CyberWire Dispatch // (c) Copyright 1999 // November 30 >>Sender: owner-cwd@vorlon.mit.edu >>Precedence: bulk >>X-Loop: cwd@vorlon.mit.edu >> >>Jacking in from the "Sticks and Stones" Port: =2E.. >> >>Two important reports to the European Parliament, in 1998 and 1999, and >>Nicky Hager's 1996 book "Secret Power" reveal that the NSA intercepts >>international faxes and emails. At the time, this revelation upset a great >>number of people, no doubt including the European companies which lost >>competitive tenders to American corporations not long after the NSA found >>its post-Cold War "new economy" calling: economic espionage. >> >>Voice telephone calls, however, well, that is another story. Not even the >>world's most technically advanced spy agency has the ability to do massive >>telephone interception and automatically massage the content looking for >>particular words, and presumably topics. Or so said a comprehensive recent >>report to the European Parliament. >> >>In April 1999, a report commissioned by the Parliament's Office of >>Scientific and Technological Options Assessment (STOA), concluded that >>"effective voice 'wordspotting' systems do not exist" and "are not in use"= =2E I wonder about the European Parliament. They sometimes make our=20 Congress look intelligent. The existence of speech recognition=20 technology is hardly a secret. It's been on the market for years, has=20 been improving steadily and is now being offered commercially for=20 similar applications. I don't know how effective it is right now at=20 telephone monitoring, but it will only get better. Here is an excerpt=20 from one vendor's web site:=20 http://www.dragonsystems.com/products/audiomining/ "New AudioMining=81 Technology Uses Award-Winning Speech Recognition=20 Engine to Quickly Capture and Index Information Contained in Recorded=20 Video Footage, Radio Broadcasts, Telephone Conversations, Call Center=20 Dialogues, Help Desk Recordings, and More New advanced technology to retrieve specified information contained=20 in hours of recorded video footage, radio and television broadcasts,=20 telephone conversations, call center dialogues, help desk=20 recordings, and more, was demonstrated today by Dragon Systems, Inc.=20 of Newton, Mass. ... The Dragon Systems AudioMining technology converts audio data into=20 searchable text, which is easily accessible by keyword searching.=20 This new capability which eliminates the need to listen to hours of=20 recordings to find necessary information, can save time and increase=20 productivity. It gives users immediate random access to recorded=20 materials and enables them to access material using its speech=20 content. " Dragon lists Law Enforcement as one of the potential applications. I also wonder about stories like this one that might be summarized as=20 "Large Government Agency with multi-billion dollar budget for=20 monitoring communications is suspected of monitoring communications."=20 I remember a story told during the cold war about some reporters in=20 Moscow who got together for New Year's Eve in one of their hotel=20 rooms. During the evening someone offered a toast to the poor KGB=20 operatives who missed out on the holiday celebrations because they=20 had to work monitoring their conversations. A short while later the=20 phone rang. The person who picked it up heard the pop of a cork, the=20 gurgle of a drink being poured and then the caller hung up. Yes, they really are listening. Arnold Reinhold
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