Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a High-Speed Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier

[NashVegas]

Source: Wired

A U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003.

"What I thought was alarming is how this carrier ended up essentially allowing a third party outside their organization to have unfettered access to their environment," Babak Pasdar, CTO of New Jersey-based IGXglobal told THREAT LEVEL. "I wanted to put some access controls around it, they vehemently denied it. And when I wanted to put some logging around it, they denied that."

Pasdar won't name the wireless carrier in question, but his claims are nearly identical to unsourced allegations made in a federal lawsuit filed in 2006 against four phone companies and the U.S. government for alleged privacy violations. That suit names Verizon Wireless as the culprit.

Pasdar has executed a seven-page affidavit for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project in Washington, which on Tuesday began circulating the document (.pdf), along with talking points (.doc), to congressional staffers hashing out a Republican proposal to grant retroactive legal immunity to phone companies who cooperated in the warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

Read more: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/whistleblower-...

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How 18th century France ...

[Bilbo Heugan]

1. Time to watch "Enemy of the State" again.

[SpiralHawk]

2. The enemey of the state is republicon homelanderism

which detests and seeks to destroy all things American and honorable...

[hootinholler]

5. I keep waiting for enema of the state to come out.

I'm so ready to flush these bastards.

Oh, welcome to DU!

-Hoot

[razors edge]

8. I always flush twice,

it's a long way to Washington DC from Toledo.

[Gman]

15. Or the Bourne Ultimatum

[Rene]

36. So what happened to the story about 5 major trans-atlantic cabels being cut

Story has completely disappeared from the msm.
Did they actually get 'cut' or was someone splicing into them and re-directing all data traffic?
Someone like U.S. government and Telecoms.

[nashville_brook]

3. How Stasi...

5th rec and off you go...

[Supersedeas]

41. How now Nancy?

[lovuian]

4. This is such a Orwellian nightmare

its not 1984 but 2004

[tavalon]

40. Wow, you just reminded me of my sig line in 2004

It's not 1984, it's not even 2004, it's 1934, and I am NOT a good German!

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Keep the whistleblowers coming! We can use more of them!

Anyone who can supply actual names and dates is especially needed. That means men and women working for the US government. You know it isn't right to spy on US citizens without a warrant. Do your duty. Uphold the Constitution.

[Ghost Dog]

11. Sure. But

why is it apparently all right for the US government to spy on everybody else without a warrant?

[gulfcoastliberal]

7. Meanwhile the house dems prepare to be good fascists and pass the immunity bill.

Insane.

[AzDar]

9. K & R...

[FarCenter]

10. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_...

The CALEA requires that communications companies install in all their switching systems the ability to establish a monitoring bridge to law enforcement. Theoretically, this is supposed to be used only in conjunction with lawful court orders.

This is for law enforcement and the FBI.

It may be used by NSA and CIA, but I'd guess that they have other, more covert, means.

[tom_paine]

12. It's nice to have confrimation of what we already know. Just the tip of a VERY large iceberg.

The Old Republic of America is finished. Has been for quite some time now. Thanks to some Corporate Media spray-on laquer and perfume, few have noticed the corpse has begun to stink.

They will, when the lacquer and perfume is no longer necessary to fool the idiots.

[Pavulon]

16. Sadly this is all rhetoric, this capacity

has been around for 60 years. The US intercepted telegrams. Old school?

That is what they do. Signal intelligence is old hat.

The details will never be made public in discovery, hence immunity..

If it is disclosed we just get to pay the billions to rebuild a system to replace the compromised one.

[Vilis Veritas]

38. What you said is true.

If we are finding out about it, it is because there are plans for a new tap that will be better, faster and even more capable of intrusion.

Look for a new technology that can tap into ALL existing forms of video and has that has two way video conferencing, oh wait that is old school, the patent application for that was done in 1998, near as I can tell.

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2000%2F07371&IA=...

Peace.

[lonestarnot]

13. Verizon you suck bushitler ass and that is pretty fucking scummy!

[peacetheonlyway]

14. Hawaiian Telecom / AT&T & Verizon all do this

I was consulting for Hawaiian telecom in the Operations group that managed DNS and email accounts etc. in 2006. FYI HT had just been taken over by Carlyle Group, with the goal that they would flip the company for $300M more than they bought it for 2 years later. They were transitioning off the Verizon backbone.

My boss was approached by the homelands security guys and told without question to install the equipment.

He said, no problem what are the admin passwords and logins to this box. They said "you are not authorized to have this." bottom line, it went up the chain and we got stuck installing the equipment.

What's wrong with this picture?


I have spent 20 years a telecommunications person. I at one point considered telecomms the last large industry that was innovating the citizen's access to true information like blogs, etc. But here is a perfect example of what is really happening.

MULTINATIONAL GLOBAL companies buy out the local US Homeland officials... get full access to all sensitive traffic going thru this key US to Japan/China gateway and voila... Carlyle group knows instantly what it's competitors are doing, can monitor anyone anytime anywhere in the world. Bush Sr. is a Carlyle Group Board member if that tells you anything of the ponsy scheme.

*** The average citizens should be up in arms.. it was largely taxpayer money that funded the monopolies that are the telcos..

to see our money get handed over to these global corporations that DO NOT HAVE US INTERESTS In mind but rather global profits which take precedence over US needs.. is not only disgusting, it is a national security problem in and of itself..


maybe we should start monitoring the carlyle group's communications under the new revised FISA law and put it on a blog like dailykos..

maybe they would hate to have the tables turned on them...

[truedelphi]

30. Thank you for your informative and scary post.n/t

[DissedByBush]

17. If anyone is actually surprised about this

I must ask you what rock you've been living under since Shrub took office.

[chill_wind]

19. Most of us are not surprised, but every new affirmation of this busholini spy crap

leaves a lot of us angrier than ever. I long, with all my being, to see people prosecuted for this fascist criminal shit.

It makes me incredibly angry to know that they- and all their protectors and enablers and their comfortable families making a living off this kind of enterprise- will probably all die rich and untainted by their very UNAMERICAN activities.

[Pavulon]

20. You do not understand

these systems are and always will be built to allow access by tlas. Been policy for decades.

This will never go to court because all the details involve classified information.

Operational aspects (procedures, equipment, network topology, software design) will never be placed in open court. EVER.

[delt664]

18. Is anyone suprised by this?

I just assumed they were doing this about 6 years ago.

[kestrel91316]

21. How 18th-century France, indeed - now all we need is a few courageous

patriots to do the logical follow-through.......

[Pavulon]

23. Federal Prison

for disclosure of classified information. Criminal act that could cost billions in the disclosure of signal intelligence systems. It is not a right of a person who has taken on a Security Clearance to feel free to disclose information they access with that clearance.


Everyone who is issued a clearance knows the rules.

[DemoTex]

22. Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre ( 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794)

Committee of Public Safety


Robespierre

[NashVegas]

25. I Was Thinking a Little Before That

Meaning the abuses of the titled, landed, classes.

[natrat]

24. imagine if the nazi movement had this element

this is beyond insane

[Mimosa]

28. Old news?

I assumed this has been happening for at least 4 years. If anybody here thinks we 'recently' lost our privacy, he or she is not paying attention. The incursions into internet privacy started during the Clinton administration and were solidified after 9/11.

The owners of big internet 'engines' including Google are only allowed to get super rich once they give into the US government and the Chinese, as they have.

[Kurovski]

26. K&R.

Do you think any of the Media-appointed trick-towels heading the next debate will ask our darling, dueling Dems about this shit?

Nah. But we'll find out which cleanser Hill uses on her kitchen sink.

[hisownpetard]

27. K&R.

[bobthedrummer]

29. And the Republicans want to give the telecoms immunity for all kinds of spying

There are some threads in GD that are taking action against that.

This is The United States of America not HOMELAND (tm)...

[Dangerously Amused]

31. They can also turn on the receiver/mike in your handset remotely,

...as long as your phone is turned on, and listen to whatever is being discussed near the phone. Nice little mobile bugging device there.

[peacetalksforall]

32. I would like to see a book burning. Save one copy for each library and the special collections,

but burn the rest - all the schoolbooks that contain all the lies. You know, the lies about our right to vote, privacy, anyone can grow up to be President, innocent until proven guilty, right to legal representation, trial by jury, leaders who represent us. We are the government.

We are LYING TO OUR CHILDREN and it's time to burn the lies and the curriculum - history, civics, etc. Sit the children down and tell them the truth. Tell them about our rulers. About how we are owned - in the name of christianity, war, profit. Tell them that our Constitution was secretly rewritten and hasn't been released to us yet, but we learn about what's in it by observing. Tell them that their new future school books will have many lies and they must pretend that what's in it is the truth.

Tell them that we will probably be told eventually and perhaps there will be novels and movies that will explain it when they figure out the right time to reveal it to us officially.

For the younger children, the stories about the protective policement and the beauty of the national parks should be the first to be thrown on the fire.

How did we get here? The arrogance. Pure arrogance. The arrogance of rule. Perceived superiority over perceived inferiority.

When some of our parents were growing up.... the person to watch out for was the busybody gossip repeating telephone operator who put their calls through.

Just remember - we paid for every penny of what they are doing to us AND OUR CHILDREN.

[NotGivingUp]

37. you are so right. until truth is taught to children, the lies will perpetuate.

[Truth2Tell]

33. Here's a post I made in June...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[alfredo]

34. Oh shit, that's my carrier.

[orleans]

35. Whistle-Blowers: the new american hero n/t

[burythehatchet]

39. IS IT FASCISM YET??? n/t