Crashing the Wiretapper's Ball

An anonymous reader writes "Wired is running an article with some great investigative journalism. Writer Thomas Green snuck into the ISS World Conference, a trade show featuring communications-tapping equipment and normally a press-free event. There, he got some very interesting quotes from the attendees." From the article: "You really need to educate yourself ... Do you think this stuff doesn't happen in the West? Let me tell you something. I sell this equipment all over the world, especially in the Middle East. I deal with buyers from Qatar, and I get more concern about proper legal procedure from them than I get in the USA."

Justice is Swift

[NotQuiteReal]

I deal with buyers from Qatar, and I get more concern about proper legal procedure from them...

Because in places like that you can lose body parts for illegal stuff!

hmmm

[MrSquirrel]

I wonder if he got those quotes from bugs he planted on people.

Famous Last Words

[fluxindamix]

from the article "in the end, all this surveillance gear and attendant hype becomes meaningless with simple precautions like encrypted VOIP, a good implementation of virtual private networks, and proxies and SSH for web surfing, IM, internet relay chat, webmail and the like" don't you ever watch Mr. Bauer ?

Reporter is a traitor.

[t_allardyce]

Damn leftists always trying to do their best to destroy our soldiers and law enforcement officers abilities to do any useful job so that the left can live in their little hippy-vile if-it-feels-good-do-it state. If I had my way - and luckily for me I do since the GOP is in power, I would have cut through all this red tape decades ago. If the spy services cant spy then what exactly can they do? The same goes for the commercial sector - what are companies supposed to do if they cant sell your personal information? I've heard that in the EU they have it even worse with this 'Data Protection' rubbish where organisations have to actually publically admit what information they are capturing and have to keep it secure, not give it out without permission and even allow the individual to see any and all information they have on them! Of course I would expect that from a socialist/communist state like the EU but it seems like the US is heading the same way. Spying on people does no harm - especially if you put it next to some of the other things our boys can do with regards to extracting information, spying is just harmless and very useful. The Lord will punish the leftists who perverted the course of justice.

Wow being Republican is easy, i think the general rule is that anything like privacy, free speech and peace you just have to pretend its not important while anything to do with sex, sexual equality, sex on tv, sex in peoples private lives etc is a matter of life or death.

Re:Nice to see journalism isn't dead ...

[gowen]

When was the last time a major newspaper did real investingation?

1973. If you bring down a President, you get the next 35 years off to go fishing.

Re:Justice is Swift

[myth24601]

". if you pass a law that is found to violate the bill of rights and/or the constitution - you should be found guilty of treason "

I think that would be found unconstitutional real fast.

Re:Of Course

[Trigun]

I love when I get solicitations where that's the first thing that they say.

"Hello, this is Bill from Blahcorp. We're doing a tech survey. Please be informed that this call may be recorded for training and quality assurance purposes"

"Really, Bill? In that case, PENIS!"

"Ummm, ok...."

So...

[mythandros]

...when do we start saving up for this guy's defense fund?

Re:Justice is Swift

[Mister Whirly]

Yep Congress makes the laws, then the President ignores them...

Re:Privacy and Secrecy is a 2way street

[thatguywhoiam]

If the government is permitted to know our every thought, word, phone call, and whereabouts then we should be able to do the same to them. After all, we are the employers and they are the employees. In fact, it's more critical for us to know their every action and movement because they are such lazy, rotten, unscrupulous, and sometimes just plain evil buggers. If we can't and don't keep an exact eye on them, they'll certainly get up to no good.

That's why, when someone asks why I encrypt things, I say its a Matter of National Security. Its about Stopping Terrorism. It's Classified, the reason why I encrypt things. And its Treason to ask me why I am even doing that. And you are Giving Comfort To The Enemy by even mentioning the fact that I encrypt my information.

All in the name of Securing the Fatherla... er, Homeland. Oh wait, I'm in Canada.

Re:Dangerous attitudes...

[iminplaya]

Ultimately, the government derives its mandate from the people...

The people have abdicated their authority. The government no longer has anything to fear...as long as there's something good on TV.