From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sun Apr 28 2002 - 13:27:26 MDT
Edmund Grech wrote:
>
> Echelon penetrates the world wide communications network and eaves drops on
> all traffic within it private or otherwise. Usually one needs a court order
> to tap a phone, Echelon dispenses with this formality not only for Britain
> and America but any foreign network it can access from its location.
Actually, one doesn't need a court order to tap a phone *in a different
country*. This is the reason why Britain taps into US suspect lines and
the US taps into British suspect lines, so they can get around this
restriction. However, note that you have to be rather high on the want
list for the intelligence signals people to check on you. Regular
domestic criminal activity is not generally monitored for.
Neither country requires a court order to tap phone lines in any other
country.
Furthermore, this 'tapping' only works for networks which are unsecure,
and for unencrypted packets on the worldwide network.
>
> Sounds highly penetrative and aggressive to me. Not that I'm complaining -
> I'm British :-)
No, it's passive. It doesn't actively penetrate anything, it sits there
and collects and scans data in the datastream as it passes by.
Not to say that there aren't other methods to use for more targeted
scanning of more secure communications, but the use of such generally
doesn't occur unless you've already tripped the wire in the public
unencrypted datastream, or you've attracted attention by other activity.
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