[natas]

Wow. More AT&T internet wiretaps? According to Salon.com, yes. This time in St. Louis.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/...a/index_np.html

Quote

In a pivotal network operations center in metropolitan St. Louis, AT&T has maintained a secret, highly secured room since 2002 where government work is being conducted, according to two former AT&T workers once employed at the center.

In interviews with Salon, the former AT&T workers said that only government officials or AT&T employees with top-secret security clearance are admitted to the room, located inside AT&T's facility in Bridgeton. The room's tight security includes a biometric "mantrap" or highly sophisticated double door, secured with retinal and fingerprint scanners. The former workers say company supervisors told them that employees working inside the room were "monitoring network traffic" and that the room was being used by "a government agency."

You can read the whole story if you click the ad.

[SekOne]

Wow, that's crazy. This is a perfect example of abuse of our constituional rights, with the only excuse for duing such intrusion is post 9-11 extra security, and the PATRIOT ACT garbage. It's all just an excuse for the government to take away one more right of ours. its ridiculous!

[Saint Peter]

SekOne is right. This is totally ridiculous.

Time to encrypt everything and make myself a tin foil hat :blink:

[t3st.s3t]

as some others have theorized, and i'm now beginning to suspect that the whole at&t + sbc + bell south thing is a conspiracy. yes, from a business standpoint i can understand the mergers. but this new at&t was forged in the flames of hell. this company has sold its soul to the government for sure and for certain.
how much further does the rabbit hole go? does it stop at the nsa/cia/fbi? is all u.s. internet and telecommunication traffic being looked at by other secret u.s. government agencies? i hate to sound all conspiracy theory or paranoid, but i'm curious to know what kind of databases are being built on american citizens, and why. :ninja:

[TheCheckt]

Well I heard when the government wanted all the phone records of phone companies Qwest was the only one who refused. I can't confirm that, but just the thought of it makes me feel warm and fuzzy that I have Qwest.

[Perf-149]

One large company is easier for the government to keep an eye on. I wouldn't be suprised if there were tax or funding incentives made by the government. conspiracy theories are no longer around, this stuff is serious, and it is becoming extremely scary. The way the US government is moving is twords full ownership of citizens media and privacy. This was somthign that has been protected for hundreds of years, and now is slowly being taken away from us. And, in this system of SIG's, we the people have no real say in this matter. My faith in American democracy has finally dissolved, and I think that many more will follow me as more actions are taken.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

Even in times like this, there are ways we can protect our own privacy, such as making a habit of calling from payphones and even stringing up extenders, or spoofing a MAC address and using a WIFI access point, but it doesn't mean we should have to. Even the thought of this sort of thing happening is just plain wrong and as mentioned by many, is in direct violation of the fourth amendment. It looks like the future of this country has set course for 1984.

[Dare To Imagine]

I thought that the NSA was only seeing who we call, to make sure we aren't calling Afganistan or anything.

I couldn't see a reasonable application for compiling phone data on everyone in the country.

[t3st.s3t]

AT&T told a federal judge Friday that the company was ``just a passive instrument of the government.''
eff lawsuit story

This post has been edited by t3st.s3t: 24 June 2006 - 03:34 PM

[ephcon]

NPR just had a segment on net neutrality (available as podcast and no their website) and they had a representative from Telcom talking about how charging for bit transfer over individual networks was in the true name of free markets and allocated more freedom and extended consumer rights.
It was pretty scary, mostly because he was so persuasive.
The guy opposed was the creator of Craig's List.
check it out.
:unsure:

[CerealKiller]

Scary thing is this place is 15-20 minutes away from me not far at all.

I say it's time for me to get a couple locals together and go exploring.

[Venom]

CerealKiller, on Jun 24 2006, 05:46 PM, said:

Scary thing is this place is 15-20 minutes away from me not far at all.

I say it's time for me to get a couple locals together and go exploring.

Might want to see if you can get a contract there and check things out.

[d3fault]

I've always wanted to see an angry mob of people break into a secret military base but it would be just as sweet to see like 500 people breaking into a central office and finding out what is actually going on in that room.

[Venom]

d3fault, on Jun 24 2006, 07:12 PM, said:

I've always wanted to see an angry mob of people break into a secret military base but it would be just as sweet to see like 500 people breaking into a central office and finding out what is actually going on in that room.

Why not just hack into that room from a room outside while on a contract? Its simpler...

Open up a share on your workstation, tell one of your associates that works in the room to check out somedoc, then just constantly monitor your network connections until he views it from the share, r00t his IP... a lot easier, and less damaging to yourself and the other 499 people mobbing the place...

[ephcon]

Venom, on Jun 24 2006, 05:16 PM, said:

d3fault, on Jun 24 2006, 07:12 PM, said:

I've always wanted to see an angry mob of people break into a secret military base but it would be just as sweet to see like 500 people breaking into a central office and finding out what is actually going on in that room.

Why not just hack into that room from a room outside while on a contract? Its simpler...

Open up a share on your workstation, tell one of your associates that works in the room to check out somedoc, then just constantly monitor your network connections until he views it from the share, r00t his IP... a lot easier, and less damaging to yourself and the other 499 people mobbing the place...

The hack would definately be more interesting.

But the angry mob would be fun to see, or maybe even take part in.

[Venom]

Well if you guys can get 497 others interested, I'll join you on the mob. Until then, I'm gonna see if I can hook some friends up with contracts at AT&T up in MO. Interested telecom people should PM me, I do work for a recruiting firm after all :)

[anthrax_postman]

Luckily for me I only use public computers to connect to the internet.

Quote

SekOne is right. This is totally ridiculous.

Time to encrypt everything and make myself a tin foil hat :blink:

Count me in.

[t3st.s3t]

i've decided to cut bait with my services from at&t (phone, dsl, and dish). cable/phone/internet is cheaper by about $50/mo, and they are not planning to do what at&t is doing anytime soon. B)