wire tapping

[smokeman]

Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit that alleges the telecommunications company cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.

These four pages, excerpted by Klein from a 60-page document, allegedly describe AT&T's efforts to install splitters on internet fiber-optic cables at the company's San Francisco switching center. Page 2 describes the splitter and lists the equipment at the receiving end of the purportedly tapped lines. Page 3 is a diagram depicting the alleged tap, and Page 4 details connections between the splitter cabinet and what Klein calls a "secret room" housing the equipment.

"Since the San Francisco 'secret room' is numbered 3, the implication is that there are at least several more in other cities (Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego are some of the rumored locations), which likely are spread across the U.S.," Klein wrote.
http://blog.wired.com/klein_evidence/

[Aught Six]

The rest of the story....

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70908-0.html

Mathew Casamassima indeed works for AT&T, but something about this document seems suspect. I'm not at liberty to discuss my hunch due to confidentiality concerns, so I'll leave it as my mere opinion.

Anyway, this type of activity (wire tapping) is nothing new, especially for AT&T. Trust me, it's a good thing when telecoms help build cases against terrorists and criminals. Whether or not the monitoring in question was unwarranted or illegal is left to be seen, and this brief paper does little to determine the legality one way or another.

On a side note, a federal judged ordered EFF not to distribute or allow the release of this document, so they very well may be in contempt of court.

Kind of interesting that no mainstream news media have picked up on thisstory yet.

[Canuck_Buck]

Looks like hardware for redundency....

[Aught Six]

Can't comment on the technical aspects--I'm not that nerdy. I do know that monitoring fiber-optic data is much more difficult that POTS lines because of the photon vs. electron issue mentioned in the article. It'll take a decent engineer to figure out if that schematic amounts to anything worth mentioning. Where's tardfarmer when you need him?

Interesting note, Mrs. Six used to work for Verizon and actually spoke to private and commercial clients who specifically requested fiber-optic service to prevent wire tapping. Once in a whileshe'd talk to someone who wanted to know whether he/she was being tapped, but of course, it's against company policy and against the law to confirm or deny such a thing to a target.

[Canuck_Buck]

interesting...hardware is hardware...what it is being used for is another thing...

there's also the wireless phone issue...