Neil wrote:
Do people here really so quickly forget things? There was a talk on Carnivore given in 2000 at NANOG 20, IIRC, and I believe that one of the instigating causes of that talk was problems that Earthlink had experienced when the FBI had deployed Carnivore there.
Naturally. The NSA isn't filled with theorists who want to get the job done the "right" way. They have a mission to fulfill, and they'll use whatever tool works to get it done.
Just a slight point of order, here. Carnivore (and its successor, DCS1000) were used by, and developed by, the FBI. The NSA use other stuff. Let's get back to reality, anyway.
Both the FBI and NSA are our "national security people." Since there are not many visible examples of failures of NSA technology, and because such failures are more likely to be covered up, pointing out an obvious screwup that was more readily visible seems reasonable. As a further point of order, I expect that the NSA has access to any tools that the FBI has developed, if and when they ask for them, especially now, in our new and less compartmentalized homeland security infrastructure. Unless, of course, you're saying that you work for the NSA and you actually know this not to be the case, in which case, do tell. ... JG -- Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN) With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.