w1ld wrote:
] ] "he 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."
]
] George "Big Brother" Bush just loves this wild run he has on
] the constitution.

Testing Replies. 1.... 2.... 3.... [is this thing on???]

OK, time to replace news paper sensationalism with a
little down to earth fact.

First off, the author of the story everyone is forwarding
around is John Markoff. This is the guy who brought you
the Kevin Mitnick fiasco. Just keep that in mind and don't
forget to bring along a few grains of salt.

I'm linking here the September version of the document.

On the whole, this document is excellent. As a computer
security professional I would strongly support this set
of proposals. In fact, the general outline reminds me of
the set of recommendations I gave South Korea's "Cyber
Terror" Response Center two years ago. Of course, its much
more detailed and far better. I only had a 45 minute talk
given through translators. However, I strongly agree that
this is the correct direction for us to be moving in.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the need to protect
personal privacy and liberty are specifically underlined
through out the document. These concerns form a much more
significant part of the document then the text in question,
and the government correctly observes that often privacy,
liberty, and infrastructural security can be improved
simultaneously, and that improvements in one area often
assist the other.

This is the specific text in question:

] ISPs, hardware and software vendors, IT
] security-related companies, computer emergency
] response teams, and the ISACs, together, should
] consider establishing a Cyberspace Network
] Operations Center (Cyberspace NOC), physical or
] virtual, to share information and ensure
] coordination to support the health and reliability
] of Internet operations in the United States.
] Although it would not be a government entity and
] would be managed by a private board, the Federal
] government should explore the ways in which it
] could cooperate with the Cyberspace NOC.

My answer is a resounding YES. I've been responsible for
security for a large ISP. Almost every attack occurs
across multiple networks, and it is very important to
be able to rapidly coordinate between different networks.
However, in the past, efforts to build such organizations
have failed. ISPs do a good job of sharing ideas about
technical problems and up to date information on outages
through forums like nanog, but for various reasons, attempts
to get REAL TIME access to engineers at other ISPs for
security emergencies have failed. I suspect that this is
because providing real time assistance to a competitor in
an emergency is not something most ISPs feel highly
motivated to do.

Currently, if you track a security problem into another ISP's
network, you are left sitting on hold at their customer
service department. You get a level one tech who d... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

RE: Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet

Decius wrote:
] ] "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."
]
] This is the big story of the day. This is the Communications
] Assistance for Law Enforcement Act 2.0... Unlike the streets,
] where people seem to be meek, on the net this sort of thing
] never flies. They have people howling all over the place and
] the report hasn't even been released yet! :)

If you set aside the conspiracy theories, the proposed system actually sounds a lot like the "NIMI" that NSF and DARPA are already doing. In addition to NIMI, there is a standing proposal for a "GIMI." You may also already know about CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis.

I've linked to the NIMI site here.

Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet