[118914] in Cypherpunks
IP: Net users must prepare for Big Brother
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Sun Oct 10 13:23:30 1999
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Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 12:26:21 -0400
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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From: "Dan S" <ds1999@subdimension.com>
To: "isml" <isml@onelist.com>
Subject: IP: Net users must prepare for Big Brother
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 11:25:22 -0400
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: "Dan S" <ds1999@subdimension.com>
>From http://www.news-real.com/story/19991007/00/47/6132233_st.html
-
Commentary; Net users must prepare for Big Brother
Boston Herald
I leaped at the chance to teach a course on computers in Italy this summer
at the every-other-year session of the International School on Disarmament
and Research on Conflicts in Rovereto. I learned as much as I taught -
distressing news about threats to computer privacy that Americans seem
unaware of.This programwas founded by students of the late Enrico Fermi, a
Nobel laureate in physics, more than two decades ago in cooperation with the
Pugwash arms control conferences. It aims to train a new generation to carry
on the work of diminishing threats from weapons of mass destruction.
As new, potentially dangerous technologies have crowded onto the
international stage, the course has grown to include threats to the
environment, the dangers of chemical and biological weapons, and now the
perils of cyberspace. This summer's course, for which I was one of 20
instructors from around the world, was "Computers, Networks and the
Prospects for European and World Security."
>From day one, the news was dispiriting. I was prepared to learn that the
successor to Russia's KGB was exerting pressure to control the Internet.
That falls under "So what else is new?"
The director of the Information Department at Russia's Institute for USA and
Canada Studies, Dr. Alexander Kaffka, reported that Russia had made great
progress in emerging from the "Stone Age of Computerization" but warned that
"pending legislation (the so-called "System for Ensuring Investigated
Activity II") will allow the Federal Security Ministry to instigate
real-time monitoring of every e-mail message and Web page sent or received
in Russia."
In addition, users or providers would have to pay to have surveillance
mechanisms installed, a proposal that would bankrupt smaller Internet
providers and make the costs prohibitive for the average user. Although
SORM-II, as it is known from its Russian acronym, has not become law, it is
being implemented anyway. "Computers are now embedded in the Russian
culture," and the struggle has begun to diminish government control, Kaffka
said.
I was less prepared to learn that the United States and Britain appear to
have gone beyond that.
Based on the 1998 report "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control"
that he had written for the European Parliament, Steve Wright, the director
of the Omega Foundation, a human-rights advocacy group in England, described
in chilling detail a global electronic surveillance system said to be
operating already. If he is correct, it gives new meaning to the term "Big
Brother."
Created in England by the U.S. National Security Agency in partnership with
British intelligence agencies, the system known as "Echelon" is reputed to
be intercepting all e-mail, telephone and fax communications in Europe.
In Europe the outrage has focused on the allegation that the U.S. and
British governments are relaying this information to their business
communities to gain a competitive edge. Wright's report attracted little
attention in the United States because it was released just as Kenneth
Starr's inquiries were riveting public attention.
Nevertheless, it is the unrestricted electronic eavesdropping that elicits
the most Orwellian fears. Neither the Russian nor the Anglo- American
surveillance schemes has any of the protections proposed in the United
States, such as mandatory deposit of keys to coding software in escrow.
(These could be used by law enforcement agencies only under warrants issued
by a judge.)
The intense distrust of government, exacerbated by the recent revelations
concerning the FBI's role in the Waco fire, has contributed to the hostile
response to the government's proposal. Just how the balance will be worked
out between the public's right to privacy and the government's need to know
is unclear. Gary Chapman, a noted authority on digital security, stated
forcefully that, "Digital encryption in the years ahead will have the same
importance as nuclear weapons."
As it was with nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants, the first step to a
reasonably sane policy has to include an aware public.
The threats to privacy have produced some odd alliances. Rep. Bob Barr
(R-Ga.), one of the most conservative members of Congress, has joined with a
liberal group of members to explore the Anglo-American "Echelon" program in
hearings planned for this fall. These could go a long way to alerting the
public to the tough decisions that lie ahead.
Dorothy Shore Zinberg teaches science, technology and public policy at
Harvard's Kennedy School.
Publication Date: September 26, 1999
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Dan S
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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
