fwd from cryptography list: some interesting points on CALEA - elyn ----- Original Message ----- From: Ronald L. Rivest Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 10:41 AM Subject: Israeli compromise of U.S. telecommunications?
I found the following four-part report by Carl Cameron rather shocking:
Part 1: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40684,00.html Part 2: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40747,00.html Part 3: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40824,00.html Part 4: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40981,00.html
Why should we be freely giving to Israeli corporations information (call records, CALEA information) that requires court orders to obtain in this country? Such information is obviously sensitive, and the well-motivated efforts to strengthen and protect our national infrastructure should reasonably include mandating that such information not be routinely handled by any foreign entities...
A more recent story indicates that the compromise was probably severe; criminals were escaping detection because of the compromise: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/18/224826.shtml
This vindicates concerns many of us have expressed over the years about creating single points of failure in wiretapping systems (e.g. the vulnerability of key escrow, etc.). Of course, in this case the vulnerability was intentionally created, it seems, by giving critical capabilities to foreign entities...
Ronald L. Rivest