ITIS 1210 Introduction to Web-Based Information Systems Chapter 51 How Government and Workplace Surveillance Work

Introduction  Hackers aren’t the only ones who want to monitor activity  Government has reason to monitor activity  Law enforcement reasons  Anti-terrorism reasons  Businesses have reasons as well  Worker productivity  Hostile workplace  Harassment

Introduction  Civil libertarians uncomfortable  See possibilities for abuse  Invasion of individual’s privacy  Erosion of personal freedoms  Abuse by government

Echelon

Echelon  Echelon is believed to be run by a consortium of nations including:  National Security Agency (NSA)  Ft. Meade, Md  United Kingdom (Gov’t Communications HQ)  Canada (Comm. Security Establishment)  Australia (Defence Signals Directorate)  New Zealand (Gov’t Comm. Security Bureau)

Echelon  Believed to be able to monitor a large proportion of the world’s transmitted telephone, data, and fax traffic  Sites in  Sugar Grove, West Virginia  Inbound from east  Yakima, Washington  Inbound from west  Harrogate, Yorkshire

Echelon

Echelon

Echelon  Note:  There is no definitive proof of the following  It is based on the author’s evaluation of some public resources  This is a general outline only  Listening stations worldwide point satellite dishes towards international communications satellites  Used by most of the world

Echelon  Intelsat 907  Part of the Intelsat constellation  Simultaneously handles tens of thousands of  Telephone  Fax  s  Other digital communications

Echelon  Satellites not only means of communications  Undersea cables  Land-based systems  Microwave networks  Echelon is believed to tap into each of these in different ways

Echelon

Echelon  Captured data separated into two streams  Encrypted  Unencrypted  Encrypted communications are sent to supercomputers to try to decrypt them  Intercepts sent to dictionary computers at listening centers

Echelon  Search for key words and phrases related to  Terrorism  Nuclear & biological warfare  May come from foreign governments  Communications with relevant keywords stored in Echelon permanently  Includes name of dictionary computer that processed the data – Cowboy for example

Echelon  Keyworded communications sent via secure links to regional Echelon headquarters  Analyzed by communications and intelligence experts  Sent to intelligence agencies both inside and outside the U.S.

Carnivore

Carnivore  Carnivore was an FBI packet sniffer system  Outgrowth of 1997 Omnivore  Tracking people’s Internet use  s  Web sites visited  Special software running on a Windows PC  Installed in ISP data center  No keyboard or monitor  ISP had no control

Carnivore  Intercepts large volumes of  6 GB per hour  Scans subject lines and headers of traffic  Useful data copied to 2 GB removable hard drives  Controlled via secure remote access by FBI  Dedicated phone line

Carnivore  Installation based on a wiretap warrant  Might be very restrictive ( only)  Ethernet tap copied packets and forwarded to Carnivore  Filters set in local box controlled access  Only packets meeting certain criteria were captured  Others discarded

Carnivore  Removable hard drive sent to FBI periodically  Data examined by  Packeteer  Reassembled individual packets into messages  CoolMiner  Analysis tool  Carnivore, Packeteer, CoolMiner  Known as the DragonWare Suite

Carnivore  Following negative press, FBI changed designation to DCS1000  Digital Collection System  FBI retired Carnivore in 2001  Commercially available software replaced it

Workplace Surveillance  Employers use packet sniffers to monitor employee behavior on the Internet  Unfiltered sniffers capture every packet  Filtered sniffers (like Carnivore) capture only packets with special characteristics  Packets saved to a log file  Tech support can reconstruct employee’s Internet behavior

Workplace Surveillance  Sex! Sex! Sex!  No problem with  Stuff.com  Bicycles.org  Alerts for  Sex.com  Kinky.com  Singles.com

Workplace Surveillance  Keystroke loggers also used  Installed on employees computers without their knowledge  Record of every keystroke available for analysis  Every document  Every