Spying & Monitoring

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to public anger and to a protest by the London Internet Exchange, whichrepresents more than 330 telecommunications firms. Not so in America, where economically challenged communities arewelcoming the multibillion dollar construction work to create thefacilities. Freedom can be traded for temporary prosperity, according tolocal officials in Utah, as reported by a news segment on KSL , Salt LakeCity's NBC affiliate. The data center is estimated to be 1 million square feet, sitting on 200-acres, and it couldn't come at a better time for Utah's economy, KSLreported , and will cost taxpayers nearly $2 billion. The report went on toenthuse that even Congressman Jason Chaffetz is excited. FromWashington he told KSL News: 'It's a benefit to our economy and ournational security.'" In San Antonio, the NSA is dramatically expanding an existing facilityrather than creating a new one. San Antonio Current writer Greg M.

Schwartz explained how the expanded facility would be 470,000 squarefeet, almost the size of the Alamodome. Schwartz revealed that SanAntonio officials actually courted the NSA, sending trade delegations toFt. Meade to win the expansion. The new facility is a potential boon tothe local economy since its reportedly going to employ around 1,500people, Schwartz noted, but questions remain about whether there willbe adequate oversight to prevent civil-rights violations like Uncle Samsrecent notorious warrantless wiretapping program. Actually, there's nohonest question about that. Schwartz is just politely saying in journalistickant that, like Salt Lake City, San Antonio expects to profit from the

destruction of the Constitution's Bill of Rights. Temporarily, anyway. Schwartz got a personal dose of the destruction of the Bill of Rights whilepreparing his story for the San Antonio Current . Readers are advisednot to take any photos unless you care to be detained for at least a 45-minute interrogation by the National Security Agency, as this reporterwas, Schwartz wrote . The security guards asked, but did not demand,that Schwartz destroy photos he had taken of the facility.

They didn't take his camera this time, that is. Of course, if the NSA is free to ignore one part of the Bill of Rights, theFourth Amendment prohibition on searches without court warrants andprobable cause , what security can Americans have in preventing the NSAfrom ignoring the other parts of the Constitution such as freedom of the press under the First Amendment ? The New American Magazine
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7418884http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7418884http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7418884http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7418884http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/


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Edited on Fri May-26-06 11:52 AM by leveymg

NSA Scandal (Pt. 2): Verint NSA's ForeignPartner

This series on NSA contractor scandals details the activities of theprivate companies that have taken over domestic surveillance under theBush Administration. One of the most important of these corporations isVertint, an Israel-based electronic communications surveillance outfit,

which in alliance with VeriSign, the operator of the .com, .net, and .eduregistries, monitors most of the sites on the World Wide Web. If you'reviewing this article on a .com, NETDISCOVERY -- the Internet surveillancesystem developed jointly by Verint and VeriSign -- is monitoring your on-line experience at this very moment.

In the last installment, we reported that the NSA similarly employsNeuStar, the top .us and .biz Internet domain registry as a conduit tomonitor web-communications networks in the US and to monitor the cellphone traffic in as many as 210 countries worldwide. See, Pt. 1, NSASCANDAL: NeuStar - Telcom Scapegoat or NSA Front Company?http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/20/16437/4670

MORE, below:

When Congress passed the 1994 Communications Assistance for LawEnforcement Act (CALEA), all telephone networks operating within theUnited States were required by law to install equipment that would allowthe FBI and other investigative agencies to tap your phone. At the time,

that technology did not exist in the United States as an off-the-shelf product, but Comverse Infosys, a company headquartered in Israel,stepped into this market void with its well-developed telcom networksurveillance systems.

By the year 2000, practically every broadband-capable phone system inthe US and in many foreign countries were in the process of installingComverse Infosys systems. Comverse Technology, Inc. is now also the
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/20/16437/4670http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/20/16437/4670


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leading vendor of commercially-available web-based surveillanceequipment through its subsidiary, Verint. The company describes itsproducts as capable of intercepting virtually all forms of networkcommunications worldwide:http://www.verint.com/lawful_interception/index.cfm

Verint Communications Interception Solutions

. . . Verint Communications Interception Solutions help extract the most important information from voice and data collected over virtually any type of network. This actionable intelligence helps organizations rapidly detect and address security threats and build evidence for legal

prosecution.

Verint offers a comprehensive, integrated portfolio of interception,monitoring, and analytic solutions. Our solutions are ETSI and CALEAcompliant and work with virtually any type of network, content,application, or service. And our worldwide presence positions us toaddress new challenges and technologies as they emerge, providing our customers with solutions that help them achieve their objectives.

The UK telecom trade publication, The Register gave a detaileddescription in 2003 of how Verints surveillance products work:www.sianews.com / modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=758

The RELIANT system acts as a government agency's big ear, collectingand managing intercepted voice, e-mail, fax, SMS, data, chat, and Webbrowsing -- all on a single platform. On the delivery side, STAR-GATEdoes the actual wiretapping, and is primarily marketed to telephonecompanies trying to comply with the 1994 Communications Assistancefor Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which requires telecommunicationscarriers to keep their networks wiretap friendly for the FBI. An ISPversion of STAR-GATE lets Internet providers conduct lawful surveillanceof their customers and send the intercepted data to law enforcement over private networks.

However, Verint developed another, even more massive interceptionsystem: NetDiscovery. In 2002, Verint partnered with VeriSign, thedomain name registrar for all .com, .org., and edu sites, to install theNetDiscovery network traffic analyzer and diverter system mandated byFCC interpretation of CALEA. This arrangement was described as thefoundation of the Wiretap Friendly Web by telecom industry writer
http://www.verint.com/lawful_interception/index.cfmhttp://www.sianews.com/http://www.verint.com/lawful_interception/index.cfmhttp://www.sianews.com/


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Annalee Newitz:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/06/fbi_wiretap_bon... /

VeriSign's NetDiscovery service allows carriers to outsource the processing of all court order requests simply by establishing what thecompany calls a "secure" connection to its servers. Raj Puri, VeriSign VPof Communications Services, said, "This is a natural extension of our services as a provider for multiple wireline and cable providers. We havethe infrastructure in our network that providers need to be compliant ."

And, he added, "We are involved with standards-making and the FCC. Sowe've got a full solution for providers."

In 2002, VeriSign partnered with a company called Verint onNetDiscovery. Verint markets devices like STAR-GATE and RELIANT, bothof which are designed specifically to assist with the lawful interception of data from broadband providers as well as telecoms. As VeriSign goesfull-bore into the CALEA compliance market, Verint stands to do well withthis partnership.

And there's no doubt that the current furor over CALEA is bringing innew customers for companies like VeriSign, as well as its partners and competitors. "This FCC thing has heightened awareness. We have seenour sales activity increase over the past several months," VeriSign's Purireported. Fiducianet's Warren has seen a similar trend. " has brought alot of attention to this issue which helps our business," he said. "Carriers

look at whether they're compliant and then they turn to vendors to get it done efficiently."

Since that 2004 article was published, Fiducianet was bought out byNeuStar. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=67426 NeuStar attracted a furor a couple weeks ago when telcom clients ATT,Verizon & Bell South claimed they had avoided legal liability for thewarrantless transfer of customer data to the NSA by having NeuStaractually sell the information. See, Pt. 1; also, see,http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_22/b398...

With NeuStar monitoring traffic in the .us and .biz domains along withmuch of the worlds cell phone traffic, and VeriSign using VerintsNetDiscovery intercept system and its older STAR-GATE and RELIANTsystems on telephone networks, NSA and its partners pretty much haveall phones and cell phones tapped, and has a map and a portal into theentire Internet, including your computer and this web site.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/06/fbi_wiretap_bonanzahttp://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=67426http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_22/b3986068.htmhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/06/fbi_wiretap_bonanzahttp://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=67426http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_22/b3986068.htm


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_____________________________________________________

Footnote 1. Based in Sophia Antipolis (France), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is officially responsible forstandardization of within Europe. These technologies includetelecommunications, broadcasting and related areas such as intelligenttransportation and medical electronics.

______________________________________________________

2006. Mark G. Levey

Washington One Mans Military-Industrial-Media Complex
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/washington/index.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/washington/index.html

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