Inside DCSNet, the FBI’s Nationwide Eavesdropping Network
The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation’s telecom infrastructure than observers suspected.
It’s a “comprehensive wiretap system that intercepts wire-line phones, cellular phones, SMS and push-to-talk systems,” says Steven Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science professor and longtime surveillance expert.
The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone’s location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.
The released documents suggest that the FBI’s wiretapping engineers are struggling with peer-to-peer telephony provider Skype, which offers no central location to wiretap, and with innovations like caller-ID spoofing and phone-number portability.
To security experts, though, the biggest concern over DCSNet isn’t the cost: It’s the possibility that push-button wiretapping opens new security holes in the telecommunications network.
More than 100 government officials in Greece learned in 2005 that their cell phones had been bugged, after an unknown hacker exploited CALEA-like functionality in wireless-carrier Vodafone’s network.
Is any of this surprising in this day and age? I would have been surprised if this wasn’t the case.
I wonder if the geeks who are building these systems are going to end up feeling like some of the scientists who developed atomic weapons – or maybe they just don’t care?
>>Is any of this surprising in this day and age?
Kind of. After watching reports of the $170,000,000.00+ the FBI pissed away on its hopelessly bungled “Virtual Case File” system, their hacker-friendly software, and other signs and symptoms of incredible incompetence, I’m kind of shocked to read a report that the FBI was capable of “a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device”.
The only consolation in Little King Dumya’s efforts to virutally shred that “goddamned piece of paper” (the Constitution) has been that the agencies tasked with the responsibility have been such incompetent dunderheads that it seemed to pose minimal danger to us loyal citizens.
If they’re actually going to be able to accomplish some of this 21st-century “1984” stuff….whoa. Bad times ahead for The Republic.
Where are the Leo Szilards and Robert Oppenheimers of today? Szilard published Voice of the Dolphins around 1960. I met Oppie a couple of times at peace rallies in that period.
They may not have accomplished all they wished – for peace and humanity. Still, they had the courage to stand, refute and fight back against the lies of this nation’s political bosses.
This shows what our Government’s real fear is, it’s own people. When it does a “better” job of spying on all of us, than on the overseas terrorists.
But then they don’t threaten G.W.s little empire. The taxpayers do.
BTW, this instant wiring tapping program might explain why Skype was having problems recently. Got to shoe-horn in that surveillance code somehow. Even if it brings the service down! Can’t let Laporte and Dvorak crack wise on TWiT, without the FBI hearing it first.
#5 — “This shows what our Government’s real fear is, it’s own people.”
You are more correct than you probably know. This photo was taken in downtown Bellevue, Washington, last Monday, when Bush came to give a speech at a Dave Reichert, R-Washington, fundraiser.
The police officer is pointing his loaded weapon directly at ordinary citizens (including children) on the sidewalk quietly protesting Bush’s Iraq war.
We need the geeks to build in privacy tools and encryption in all computer tools not just to protect us against Big Brother but to also protect us from all the Little Brothers like the IT guys or your boss.
#7, Greg Allen, one of the editors sent you a comment about crypto here, it’s got some helpful links to free utilities —
http://tinyurl.com/27obr7
I have never really understood the concern over wiretapping. If some FBI agent wants to listen in while I talk to my wife or my sister, who cares? The only way it would bother me is if I was trying to do something I wasn’t supposed to be in the first place. It is not as if these wire taps are random, they are targeted. Speed is an issue in stopping a potential threat, should all wiretapping be logged, justified and reviewed after the fact, hell yes. If we can’t trust the people who are employed to protect us to do their job, we have a much bigger problem than just wiretapping.
The issue here is fear, but not just the government fearing the people, but also the people fearing the government, and people fearing each other. Fear is destroying the country, and the media is getting rich off of their fear mongering. Dvorak loves his fear mongering…