U.S. moves to tap Internet
Questions of security versus privacy
By Andrew Pooch
In today’s society, the technology of the telephone is becoming extinct. People are moving to impersonal means to communicate. People are turning to the Internet for their communication.
There are many options through the Internet. Social networking sites have emerged to become the main avenue for communication. Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are the most popular forms. People are also still using their email accounts or talking face to face through Skype.
Technology is increasing in complexity, therefore making wiretapping more difficult. The more sophisticated the technologies become, the more the conversations are scrambled. This makes it difficult to use wiretaps.
The Obama administration is making a move to increase their ability to tap into these resources. The main concern is homeland security. The ability of the U.S to wiretap and get information strictly from phones has been diminished from the dependence on the Internet.
The Obama administration is proposing new regulations that would allow a wiretap that would capture an unscrambled version of conversations over the phone, computer and email. It would then make then available for law enforcement.
“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive architecture of the Internet,” said James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”
This plan by the government has signs of potentially harmful flaws. If they were able to gain the access they are proposing, this would open up the Internet to attacks on identity. Citizens and businesses would be more prone to identity theft.
“We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” said Valerie E. Caproni, general manager for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”
Caproni also added that the technology we use to communicate has drastically changed since 1994. The laws regulating how we communicate have not kept up with the changes in communication.
The U.S has two convincing arguments on their side. They had an investigation hit a dead end with the drug cartel in Mexico, because the suspects were using a peer-to-peer website to discuss drug related business.
The other related case was the failed bombing in New York last May. The suspect of the bombing would have been discovered earlier if the technology he was using to communicate had the possible for intercept.
From the evidence that will likely be presented to Congress, It will be a convincing argument for Congress to pass a new form of regulation for wiretapping. This new process of encoding Internet technologies will prevent some terrorist threats that may be missed if there isn’t a change.
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