Re: [IWAR] RUSSIA surveillance backbone

From: Mark Hedges (hedgesat_private)
Date: Thu Jun 25 1998 - 15:20:50 PDT

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    Gosh, this sounds like CALLEA's mandates that US phone companies install
    wiretapping capability into every phone switch for 1% of domestic
    phonecalls simultaneously, so the IC through FBI can wiretap remotely from
    a desktop terminal. I'm not aware of any cryptographic access mechanism
    which requires a court authentication signature ala warrant, but they
    promise that they will get warrants before they conduct a tap, and after
    all, they're the federal government, so we can trust them, right?
    
    If someone can prove that FIB will be effectively unable to tap without a
    warrant using CALLEA-generated infrastructure, that's great, but otherwise
    it's no different from this alleged FSB measure, except that the Russians
    are a few years behind Amerikan "progress" in this matter.
    
    Congress gave the phone corps a stay of liberty execution of a couple of
    years, but the law's still there.
    
    -hedges-
    
    >Put this in the 'important if true' category:
    >http://www.jya.com/sorm-fsb-ru.htm
    >
    >-----
    >
    >
    >From: "Maksim Otstavnov" <maksimat_private>
    >To: cypherpunksat_private
    >Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 22:28:02 +0400
    >Subject: SORM: New ex-KGB moves in telecom
    >CC: John Young <jyaat_private>, Chris Oakes <chrisoat_private>
    >
    >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
    >
    >To whom it may concern:
    >
    >The text between [Start of translation] and [End of translation] lines below
    >is a verbatim translation of the two drafts of documents which are currently
    >in the state of approvement by the two Russian ministries: Federal Security
    >Service (FSB, one of the five special services inheriting to KGB) and State
    >Committee on Communications (Goskomsvyaz'). The originals (and comments) are
    >available at the Libertarium Webpages (www.ice.ru/libertarium/sorm).
    >
    >Inconsistencies of the original texts (including but not restrictive to:
    >paragraph misnumbering, language vagueness etc.) are left intact. I left the
    >two Russian abbreviations: SORM for the System of efficient research measures,
    >and FSB for the Federal Security Service, to avoid confusion in future.
    >
    >In short: if approved, the rules will provide ex-KGB with technical
    >facility to
    >_directly_ and covertly wiretap _any_ information transmitted via
    >telecommunication networks including telephone, telegraph, Internet etc. and
    >there will be no means to ensure KGBists obtained a court warrant (required by
    >Constitution and other federal legislation) before wiretapping.
    >
    >Any informed comments (of legal and technological, not emotional nature) from
    >both organisations and from individual experts are welcome.
    >
    >I am grateful to all involved with obtaining the documents. Hope some day I
    >will be in a position to mention them by their names...
    >
    >- - Maksim Otstavnov
    >
    >[reference the URL for the remainder of the document]
    



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