FBI Wants Authority To Filter Net Backbone

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes "There are places where criminal activity is centralized: the backbone hubs located in hosting facilities across the country. All of the Internet's activity, legal and illegal, flows through these 'choke points,' and the feds, of course, are already tapping those points and siphoning off data. What Mueller wants is the legal authority to comb through the backbone data, which is already being siphoned off by the NSA, in order to look for illegal activity."

Next on his list

[davidwr]

The legal authority to block anything he can't read.

I would say "Welcome to Soviet America" but the feds have had the "we can do what we want in the name of protecting the country damn the Constitution" attitude off and on since the 1700s.

so much for probable cause

[EllynGeek]

Why is it so easy to trash the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and so hard to put them back? What a bunch of assholes. They must have had the words "probable cause" surgically removed from their brains.

Misleading Headline

[Gregb05]

Please tag 'badheadline', 'misleadingheadline' or 'kdawsonfud'.

This is not filtering, this is mining. Both are considered bad, but there is a difference.

Re:And how do we break the backbone?

[iamacat]

If they are able to distinguish between encrypted data and JPEG images, the encryption used is seriously flawed.

Re:There are places where criminal activity is c

[Prisoner's Dilemma]

>> "There are places where criminal activity is centralized..."

Yes there are. The White House, NSA, Dept of Homeland Security.

Re:Will my fellow conservatives please speak up?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what planet you've been on, but the last time the Republican party was the party of civil liberties was when Lincoln was president.

Current laws make it too scary to have open wifi

[witherstaff]

The biggest ad hock mesh I know if is Meraki's [meraki.com] San Fran Mesh [meraki.com]. However with the feds having CALEA [wikipedia.org] hanging over every open hotspot, I don't see alternates really growing that well. What average person is going to be able to comply with the real time snooping/sniffing/auditing requirements, let alone sweat the 10,000 a day fine, just to let others use the Internet? If it's not plug and play simplicity it's not going to happen.

Re:And how do we break the backbone?

[kdemetter]

And , given the nature the net works , blocking encrypted data on one backbone , will just make at pass trough an other backbone to reach it's destination.

Plus , even if it would work , it wouldn't help them , since people would start to use other methods to get things done .

Another thing i am thinking about : I'm sure it's easy to detect unencrypted traffic , as one can just apply a filter on it .

Encrypted traffic however , can be hard to identify .

Imagine sending an encrypted file . It will be binary , just like any other file .
So it won't be possible to know the file is encrypted .

One could also send a regular looking file ( like an image ) , wich would obviously never be blocked.

Re:The muzzies?

[Reality Master 201]

Kindly see his response to my post. He deliberately selected a slur.

Brush up on your ability to detect the bigots.

Re:Rule of Law.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, I see you have bought into the twisting Ron Paul version of the Constitution. There's a reason why no legitimate Constitutional scholar supports his view.

Re:Next on his list

[1lus10n]

That works when there is a utopian zen type balance.

That doesnt exist. They have the guns, money and data needed to control everything. Try building a private army to resist and see what happens.

We were given these rights, and people sacrificed more than you know defending these rights. Now we are flushing it all away for security (not a new concept) god (ditto) and 'protecting' the kids/grandma/your sister. (that one is kinda new).

In the good old days (retarded statement) there would have been bloodshed over something like this, and that is where balance would have been achieved. Revolutions are not fought and won in a voting booth.