MEASURE FOR MEASURE

George Bush signed a bill that authorises and expands the American government's ability to eavesdrop on its citizens. The WIRETAPPING PROGRAMME caused a furore when it came to light in late 2005, but the recent legislation passed the Senate with the support of 16 Democrats. Civil-liberty groups expressed outrage.

Grant the NSA what it wants, and within 10 years the United States will be vulnerable to attacks from hackers across the globe, as well as the militaries of China, Russia and other nations.

It seems that a large chunk (and probably relative soon nearly all) voice is now via VoIP. And to date, Skype not withstanding, this has all been cleartext traffic. Using router netflow records, etc., one can now pinpoint any phone conversation and then do a pcap dump. Many Tier 1 through Tier 3 internet carriers are now deploying this type of L7 deep packet inspection directed analysis. Currently they arelimited to about 10 Gbps (L4 DPI), but soon 40 Gbps will be available.