Reposting info that compliments the recent discussion on Echelon.

Carnivore, Sniffers, and You or SWIM

Printed from: WetDreams
Topic URL: http://www.wetdreams.ws/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=748
Printed on: Dec 01 2009

Topic:



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Topic author: ChesireCat
Subject: Carnivore, Sniffers, and You or SWIM
Posted on: Oct 11 2005 05:45:56
Message:


This should make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy.
This information is dated 5 years, but still worth reading. Sleep tight all, SWIM is going to go dig up a pipe and keep an eye on his cd-rom drive. Fucking thing... I know *they* are in there.. ;-)

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Recently the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unveiled a new tool in their ongoing fight against crime -- a controversial network sniffer named -- you guessed it -- Carnivore. Not all of the details on Carnivore have been released yet, but already the beast has some networking professionals and privacy advocates fit to be tied!

Just like my local restaurant, Carnivore probably intimidates or offends some people just because of its name. Good advertising and "branding" can make or break a business. Also like the restaurant, Carnviore faces some serious competition. Network sniffers are nothing new, and already some alternatives to the secretive Carnivore system have been discussed.

How Carnivore Behaves
"Electronic surveillance has been extremely effective in securing the conviction of more than 25,600 dangerous felons over the past 13 years" - FBI

The Carnivore system consists of an ordinary personal computer running Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows/NT and some proprietary (closed-source) software [1]. Carnivore's primary purpose is to intercept large volumes of electronic mail and other forms of electronic communication passing through a network [2]. This listening process remains passive at all times; it alters no data and prevents no messages from continuing on to their intended destination.

Carnivore can theoretically scan millions of emails per second -- processing as much as six gigabytes (6,000 megabytes) of data every hour [3]. It targets data much more selectively in practice. By scanning the subject lines and headers of incoming or outgoing messages, the system identifies relevant communications among selected individuals as part of a criminal investigation. Data deemed useful can be off-loaded onto removable drives and retrieved through secure dial-up sessions.

"The system is not susceptible to abuse because it requires expertise to install and operate, and such operations are conducted, as required in the court orders, with close cooperation with the ISPs." Source: FBI
The FBI named this system "Carnivore" in reference to its objective of collecting hard or "meaty" data. However, Carnivore captures only the raw bits of information. Messages that users encrypt with readily-available tools like PGP, for example, are not "cracked" by the system. Decoding these messages "offline" can require serious effort on the part of investigators.

Pasted from: http://compnetworking.about.com/od/networksecurityprivacy/l/aa071900a.htm

couple the old technology of echelon and its capabilities with those attributed to carnivore (also outdated) and you come up with a very scary big brother indeed. Keylogger .. smart wiretap is more like it. Always watching.. at the ready to phone home when something of interest crosses it's path.

CC

Yup, these bad boys can track everybody on the planet down to the nearest half-inch...

Hang on...

Osama Bin Laden is still in this life, the US Armed Forces (along with ours, the German, the UK, etc.) are STILL getting their butts handed to them by ragheads (consequently the extra 30K troops earmarked for deployment to Afghanistan today), who are funded almost entirely by the sale of heroin to our countries?

Seems we can only win one war or lose both, we cannot win the War on Terror whilst fighting the War on Drugs - put simply our society(s) cannot afford to field both armies (that is what bankrupted the USSR for those with some memory retention, especially now the Bear is back)...

We are a hop-skip & a jump away from conscription for the WOT, the current arrangements will not hold out for the long term (quite frankly the reservists/guardsmen/etc. cannot & will not continue to accept & more importantly, volunteer, if their tours keep getting extended ad nauseum).

Sending conscripts to Afghanistan is exactly what fucked the USSR - morale was destroyed, drug use (there & at home) soared & they were sucked further & further into the quagmire that is Afghanistan...

Hold on and wait boys and girls, change is coming - history tells us that, although whether for good or ill, only time will tell

The only thing that is certain is that change is inevitable, the status quo is intolerable and unendurable

"The system is not susceptible to abuse" I love that shit. Like they are some group of white nights or have a samurai code they give a shit about. Next they are going to say they police speed and use their lights only when necessary...

Some day this prohibition civil war will end and when it does history will not remember these "law men" kindly. The founders of the constitution would hang them all for treason.

Some day this prohibition civil war will end and when it does history will not remember these "law men" kindly. The founders of the constitution would hang them all for treason.

I have always had this same type of view. I believe LE of today will go down in history in the same way as those who propped up slavery for all those years. I'm sure LE would like to believe they are protecting the public and doing good putting violent people behind bars but the fact is %90 of their time is spent on non-violent drug "offenders" so they spend much much more of their time being agents of tyranny then they do being on the "good" side.

We should try to work towards regulating caffeine honestly. 
I'm sure that would make the LE and people get along real nice.. haha

It was a labeling error!