NS&AT&T

[Chris Olesch]

You know I really enjoyed George Orwells Popcorn. Maybe that was
Redenbockers' Popcorn while reading George Orwell...hehe...

Here is my dumb question for the day, but can someone show me where my logic
has run aloof?

The NSA's claim is not to have listened to the content, just collected it.
"Assuming" their telling the truth on this, I thought they may be trying to
create a bell-curve type application that scans the messages for content
based on predetermined criteria (similar to content filters I assume).

However, the flaw I see is similar to the idea behind changing speed limits
on residential streets. Public safety sets up the electronic signs to
monitor speed limits, and flashes if you travel above the posted limit.
Except the data can be ruined (for lack of a better word) if the drivers
sneak up on the sign and gun-it past it, repeatedly!

How this applies to the NSA model: If normal citizens are polluting their
data by using more vulgar or "terror driven" speech. How will they know
legitimate traffic from crank-yankers?

-chris
Y.A.C.Y.

On 17/05/06, Tyler Durden <camera_lumina at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'd bet by the time this post reaches the list most Cypherpunks &c will
> have
> already seen the string of information posted on Wired and other places,
> about AT&T's network. This is a level of detail that I strongly suspect
> has
> NSA folks shitting bricks:
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70908-0.html?tw=wn_index_2
>
>
> Here's an interesting quote:
>
> >One of the documents appears to describe AT&T's successful efforts to tap
> >into 16 fiber-optic >cables connecting the company's WorldNet internet
> >backbone to other internet service providers. >The document shows AT&T
> >technicians phasing in fiber-optic splitters throughout February 2003,
> > >cutting them in four at a time on a weekly schedule, ending with a link
> >to Mae West, an internet >exchange point for West Coast traffic.
>
> Now this is REALLY interesting:
>
> http://blog.wired.com/images/nsadocs2_f.jpg
>
> OK, this means the 16 fibers mentioned above are single wavelength. From
> this document we can also view what the actual bandwidths are: OC-12s and
> OC-48s, a couple of OC-3s and no OC-192s. Now I don't see any
> documentation
> stating that there isn't more than this going into the room. The "four
> splitters at a time" almost certainly implies that this traffic is coming
> off a 4-fiber BLSR (most likely too NSA worked with the other carriers to
> move the traffic to protect prior to installing the splitters).*
>
> Theoretically, they could actually just backhaul all of this traffic using
> pretty ordinary 16 wavelength WDM from any number of vendors. Getting that
> cross-country is difficult, but with ULH (Ultra Long Haul) this could be
> done with a relative minimum of repeater/amplifier sites. If they pre-sort
> the traffic before backhauling it they could then actually just buy a
> wavelength on AT&T's backbone, which has some nice features to it (I'd bet
> they also have their own encryption used for the entire wavelength pipe,
> though I could be wrong).
>
> The pinchpoint here just might actually be the deep packet inspection.
> Does
> anyone know what kind of bandwidth the narus boxes can support?
>
> What this will do is give us an idea of how much traffic they are actually
> taking back. From our discussions some months ago, I have assumed (and
> still
> believe) that they can't grab EVERYTHING and pull it back, because that
> would require too obvious and too huge a network. My other assumption is
> that the narus deep packet inspection is enforcing a prioritization prior
> to
> hockeying the most "juicy" traffic into their fiber or wavelegnths.
>
> *: They would have first told the owner/carrier of one of those OC-N pipes
> to force a switch to protection bandwidth while they installed the
> splitters, and then switch back once the splitters were installed. It
> LOOKS
> like they did this ring-by-ring, diverting traffic away from the "break"
> and
> then installing splitters on all four fibers terminating across the break.
>



--
-G

"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and
miss."
"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes
wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."
"He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way
down it..."
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Famous Quotes written by Douglas Adams,  (British comic writer, 1952-2001)
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/