Bye, bye free and open internet

[drastik]

from New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/20/technology/20MONI.html)

The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users.

The proposal is part of a final version of a report, "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," set for release early next year, according to several people who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort to increase national security after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board is preparing the report, and it is intended to create public and private cooperation to regulate and defend the national computer networks, not only from everyday hazards like viruses but also from terrorist attack. Ultimately the report is intended to provide an Internet strategy for the new Department of Homeland Security.


Anyone now how to encrypt everything you do?

kidding, kidding.

Really though, monitoring the internet cannot be a strictly American afair. This will have huge implications. Theinternet is not a national entity, it is effectively a free state. I could be anywhere writting this, but it will be routed through US servers, so it would fall under this provision. I wonder how the rest of the world will respond to this. If one were to know what they were doing, and have good code breakers (I think the government probably has this covered) unresticted access like this could allow spying on anyone anywhere on the globe.

[3777]

It will never pass:cool:

[wdlove]

It definitely will if there is another attack on our soil, especially if its computer related!

[Choppaface]

then that would reflect the gov's general lack of understanding of technology and their partiality to big biz... would it really be worth making palladium-like facilities manditory? if so, then one could easily argue that the "terrorists" would have "won"

[Megaquad]

I can't believe government is wasting resources to fight viruses!!! Instead they should tell people to get a Mac! :D

[mischief]

The provision hinges on the data in question routing or, more often residing on servers that are physically within the USA. Because something in the order of 90% of the internet resides or is transient on US Servers it makes monitoring easy.

There are a few countries with a very lucrative oppertinity right under their noses: Canada, Britain, Switzerland and a few others have some form or other of "Data Sovereignty" rights built into their core documents.

The Canadian Constitution is quite explicit in stating that Data, no matter what it's format is given the same protection that the USA only applies to the Federal Mail system. In short: the first group of Geeks to set up a "Virtual Bank" of servers designed to hold encrypted Data and financial information for extra-nationals will soon have more cash than Bill Gate$ and the Catholic Church combined.

Because so much of the very concept of money is now reflected entirely on relativistic value statements unrelated to the face value of currency, securing other people's financial data will be the new Banking Boom with non-financial critical-data storage tagging along as "Virtual Safe-Deposit" boxes. The critical element is the physical location and connection of the server farms themselves. The USA and it's infrastructure must be avoided or marginalized to make such a system work (and I know how!). :D ;)