Security officials spying on chat rooms (2004)

[dutchdemocrat]

SNIP

Their proposal, also disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, received $157,673 from the CIA and NSF. It says: "We propose a system to be deployed in the background of any chat room as a silent listener for eavesdropping...The proposed system could aid the intelligence community to discover hidden communities and communication patterns in chat rooms without human intervention."

Yener and Krishnamoorthy, both associate professors of computer science, wrote that their research would involve writing a program for "silently listening" to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel and "logging all the messages." One of the oldest and most popular methods for chatting online, IRC attracts hundreds of thousands of users every day. A history written by IRC creator Jarkko Oikarinen said the concept grew out of chat technology for modem-based bulletin boards in the 1980s.

The Yener and Krishnamoorthy proposal says their research will begin Jan. 1, 2005 but does not say which IRC servers will be monitored.

A June 2004 paper they published, also funded by the NSF, described a project that quietly monitored users of the popular Undernet network, which has about 144,000 users and 50,000 channels. In the paper, Yener and Krishnamoorthy predicted their work "could aid (the) intelligence community to eavesdrop in chat rooms, profile chatters and identify hidden groups of chatters in a cost-effective way" and that their future research will focus on identifying "topic-based information."

SNIP

"I don't know about chat-room surveillance, but doing research on issues related to terrorism is certainly legitimate," Teich said. "Whether the CIA ought to be funding research in universities in a clandestine manner is a different issue."

http://news.com.com/Security+officials+to+spy+on+chat+rooms+-+page+2/2100-7348_3-5466140-2.html?tag=st.num

[kliljedahl]

1. Good thing this isn't a chat room

BTW, FUCK YOU GWB!!!




Keith’s Barbeque Central

[undeterred]

2. they might freak out in the DU Lounge

[RC]

4. Maybe use the Lounge as a secret weapon?

Many a patron has lost all sense of time and a few other things.

[baldguy]

3. Hi Agent Mike!

:hi:

Your boss is a fascist!

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. Yeah, Hi agent Mike

youre a faschist too.

[baldguy]

8. Now, now... don't dis Agent Mike.

After all, he's just following orders.

[Catrina]

5. Why don't they just come out of hiding and join

the discussion, say who they are and what they're doing? Why all this sneaky, slimy, spying stuff? How CAN they participate in such a disgusting 'program' against their own people? Wow, disgusting to have to live your life that way! I would feel so dirty. But there were people who refused, I read in the first reports of this spying on the American people scandal. To them I say 'thank you for upholding the principles of decent people everywhere'.

I used to respect the FBI, CIA and actually thought they worked FOR the American people, not against them. Now we know, though, and it's better to be informed about this, rather than living the illusion that we are in a free country. I am truly sad that we can no longer claim to be a 'beacon of light' to the rest of the world.

One thing I have noticed though, and maybe this is the upside of this scandal. Over the holidays I was really surprised at how many people who had voted for Bush who were intensely angered by this story. People really do value their rights. And Bush knew that, that's why he tried to hide it from us!

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. What a joke

and a waste of time and money.

Someone needs to tell these assholes Usama doesn't have a DSL connection.

[mike_c]

9. drugs bombs terror al-Qaida assasinate the president airport...

...SAM missles explosive fertilizer diesel fuel ammonium nitrate federal building mule smuggle international border hijack blow up hostages Israel Allah akbar suicide martyrdom pigs detonate anthrax toxin dispersal virus Sarin VX subway botulin ricin....

:hi: Got your attention, NSA 'bots?

[kliljedahl]

11. You've got the keywords for sure

There are probably NSA computers exploding everywhere.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[DBoon]

10. The spooks are on IRC now?

I hope they at least get some warez out of it.