32 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for September 13, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 194 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using any name or email address
included herein for any reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to that person, or email address
owner.
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without the explicit written consent of the owner of
that address. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk
are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
|
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 02:48:19 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.'s
Message-ID: <p06240879ce531f8fe12f@[10.0.1.11]>
Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.'s
By SCOTT SHANE and COLIN MOYNIHAN
September 1, 2013
For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a
counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to
an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of
Americans' phone calls - parallel to but covering a far longer time
than the National Security Agency's hotly disputed collection of
phone call logs.
The Hemisphere Project, a partnership between federal and local drug
officials and AT&T that has not previously been reported, involves an
extremely close association between the government and the
telecommunications giant.
The government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting
units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug
Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply
them with the phone data from as far back as 1987.
The project comes to light at a time of vigorous public debate over
the proper limits on government surveillance and on the relationship
between government agencies and communications companies. It offers
the most significant look to date at the use of such large-scale data
for law enforcement, rather than for national security.
The scale and longevity of the data storage appears to be unmatched
by other government programs, including the N.S.A.'s gathering of
phone call logs under the Patriot Act. The N.S.A. stores the data for
nearly all calls in the United States, including phone numbers and
time and duration of calls, for five years.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/us/drug-agents-use-vast-phone-trove-eclipsing-nsas.html
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 08:21:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon-F.C.C. Court Fight Takes On Regulating Net
Message-ID: <p0624087fce53218a57f8@[10.0.1.11]>
Verizon-F.C.C. Court Fight Takes On Regulating Net
September 8, 2013
By EDWARD WYATT
WASHINGTON - Few people would dispute that one of the biggest
contributors to the extraordinary success of the Internet has been
the ability of just about anyone to use it to offer any product,
service or type of information they want.
How to maintain that success, however, is the subject of a momentous
fight that resumes this week in the United States Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit. The battle pits one of the
largest providers of Internet access - Verizon - against the Federal
Communications Commission, which for nearly 80 years has been riding
herd on the companies that provide Americans with telecommunications
services.
Verizon and a host of other companies that spent billions of dollars
to build their Internet pipelines believe they should be able to
manage them as they wish. They should be able, for example, to charge
fees to content providers who are willing to pay to have their data
transported to customers through an express lane. That, the companies
say, would allow the pipeline owner to reap the benefits of its
investment.
The F.C.C., however, believes that Internet service providers must
keep their pipelines free and open, giving the creators of any type
of legal content - movies, shopping sites, medical services, or even
pornography - an equal ability to reach consumers. If certain players
are able to buy greater access to Internet users, regulators believe,
the playing field will tilt in the direction of the richest
companies, possibly preventing the next Google or Facebook from
getting off the ground.
The court is set to hear oral arguments starting Monday morning in
Verizon v. F.C.C., which is billed as a heavyweight championship of
the technology world, setting the old era against the new.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/business/verizon-and-fcc-net-neutrality-battle-set-in-district-court.html
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 23:10:06 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: New Details in How the Feds Take Laptops at Border
Message-ID: <p06240896ce543df200ea@[10.0.1.11]>
New Details in How the Feds Take Laptops at Border
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 9, 2013
WASHINGTON - Newly disclosed U.S. government files provide an inside
look at the Homeland Security Department's practice of seizing and
searching electronic devices at the border without showing reasonable
suspicion of a crime or getting a judge's approval.
The documents published Monday describe the case of David House, a
young computer programmer in Boston who had befriended Army Pvt.
Chelsea Manning, the soldier convicted of giving classified documents
to WikiLeaks. U.S. agents quietly waited for months for House to
leave the country then seized his laptop, thumb drive, digital camera
and cellphone when he re-entered the United States. They held his
laptop for weeks before returning it, acknowledging one year later
that House had committed no crime and promising to destroy copies the
government made of House's personal data.
The government turned over the federal records to House as part of a
legal settlement agreement after a two-year court battle with the
American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the government on
House's behalf. The ACLU said the records suggest that federal
investigators are using border crossings to investigate U.S. citizens
in ways that would otherwise violate the Fourth Amendment.
The Homeland Security Department declined to discuss the case.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/09/09/us/politics/ap-us-border-computer-searches.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
I hear the trick is to fly in your own jet: customs checks for the
rich and famous are reputed to be very lax.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 08:50:08 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The Border Is a Back Door for U.S. Device Searches
Message-ID: <p06240809ce54ac49dd7d@[10.0.1.2]>
The Border Is a Back Door for U.S. Device Searches
By SUSAN STELLIN
September 9, 2013
Newly released documents reveal how the government uses border
crossings to seize and examine travelers' electronic devices instead
of obtaining a search warrant to gain access to the data.
The documents detail what until now has been a largely secretive
process that enables the government to create a travel alert for a
person, who may not be a suspect in an investigation, then detain
that individual at a border crossing and confiscate or copy any
electronic devices that person is carrying.
To critics, the documents show how the government can avert
Americans' constitutional protections against unreasonable search and
seizure, but the confiscations have largely been allowed by courts as
a tool to battle illegal activities like drug smuggling, child
pornography and terrorism.
The documents were turned over to David House, a fund-raiser for the
legal defense of Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley
Manning, as part of a legal settlement with the Department of
Homeland Security. Mr. House had sued the agency after his laptop,
camera, thumb drive and cellphone were seized when he returned from a
trip to Mexico in November 2010. The data from the devices was then
examined over seven months.
Although government investigators had questioned Mr. House about his
association with Private Manning in the months before his trip to
Mexico, he said no one asked to search his computer or mentioned
seeking a warrant to do so. After seizing his devices, immigration
authorities sent a copy of Mr. House's data to the Army Criminal
Investigation Command, which conducted the detailed search of his
files. No evidence of any crime was found, the documents say.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/business/the-border-is-a-back-door-for-us-device-searches.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
OK, it's a twice-told tale. Except that this time, we learn that
Mr. House was raising funds for Manning's defense.
Here's the interesting part: if I'm overseas and want to prevent my
laptop from being searched, all I have to do is transfer the data
electronically before I leave for home. As things now stand, that
prevents me being "caught" with something that Uncle Sam wants to
use.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 08:20:10 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: In digital world, kids gain the upper hand
Message-ID: <p06240820ce575ed33fa7@[10.0.1.2]>
In digital world, kids gain the upper hand
By Beth Teitell | GLOBE STAFF
SEPTEMBER 05, 2013
It wouldn't be fair to say that Whitney Brown has completely given up
on trying to pry her offspring from their respective electronic
devices.
But there are only so many times she can tell 11-year-old Cole to
stop playing a "Star Wars" game on the Wii, ask 18-year-old Adison to
step away from Instagram, and remind Cole's twin, Spencer, to get off
YouTube without spending her life at odds with her children.
So it would be fair to say that she has, well, sort of given up.
"Sometimes you just reach a point of exhaustion," said Brown, of
Paxton. "It's a constant struggle, and I don't always have the
energy."
Parents say they are as concerned as ever about their children
spending too much time playing video games, texting, or uploading
selfies to Facebook. But trying to keep track of that time is growing
ever more complicated. Not only has the number of devices soared, the
social landscape has shifted, with homework assignments and textbooks
moving online - making it harder to know when screen time is
frivolous.
Many parents say they feel so outmatched by their electronic and
juvenile opponents that, in the words of one expert, "they're
checking out of parenting in the digital domain."
...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2013/09/05/age-ubiquitous-screens-some-exhuasted-parents-have-stopped-policing/wruDFQbdLFG2KdCkCPLb7L/story.html?s_campaign=8315
***** Moderator's Note *****
If parents are feeling so overwhelmed, why doesn't it occur to them to
stop paying for Internet access? If their children had to pony up for
the service themselves, they would appreciate it a lot more and abuse
it a lot less.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 08:20:10 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Retailers tap into college student market
Message-ID: <p06240821ce575f8e6b6d@[10.0.1.2]>
Retailers tap into college student market
At Fenway Park event, retailers attract students with freebies, try
to sell them products, and aim for lasting connections with e-mail
signups
By Gail Waterhouse | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
SEPTEMBER 10, 2013
College students waited in a line 10 deep for the chance to guess
what would happen next in clips from "World's Dumbest" - a show
featuring home videos of people making silly mistakes. The elaborate
staging, game show-like environment, and prizes were all part of a
marketing pitch to get students to sign up for Comcast Corp.'s cable
service.
Comcast and other companies filled dozens of booths lining both sides
of Fenway Park's concourse over the weekend as part of College Day,
an event run by a Waltham marketing firm, The Campus Agency. More
than 60 businesses - from AriZona Beverages to Vera Bradley - hosted
games, ran contests, and did whatever it took to attract the
attention of nearly 9,000 college students lured to the event with
reliable bait: free stuff.
Beyond selling a product to students, many companies aimed to create
a lasting connection by having students sign up for e-mails, or
become aware of new products or services.
...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/09/09/college-day-brings-students-retail-marketers/YL8GnHBl3VVA8iBmYCbbBL/story.html?s_campaign=8315
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 08:49:14 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: IETF: Security and Pervasive Monitoring
Message-ID: <p0624080bce54bb0a52a5@[10.0.1.2]>
Security and Pervasive Monitoring
The Internet community and the IETF care deeply about how much we can
trust commonly used Internet services and the protocols that these
services use. So the reports about large-scale monitoring of
Internet traffic and users disturbs us greatly. We knew of
interception of targeted individuals and other monitoring activities,
but the scale of recently reported monitoring is surprising. Such
scale was not envisaged during the design of many Internet protocols,
but we are considering the consequence of these kinds of attacks.
Of course, it is hard to know for sure from current reports what
attack techniques may be in use. As such, it is not so easy to
comment on the specifics from an IETF perspective. Still, the IETF
has some long standing general principles that we can talk about, and
we can also talk about some of the actions we are taking.
...
http://www.ietf.org/blog/2013/09/security-and-pervasive-monitoring/
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.
TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.
The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then. Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!
URL information: http://telecom-digest.org
Copyright (C) 2013 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.
Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list.
All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom Digest (7 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues