(Fwd) (Fwd) Governments want to change Net architecture

[Horns@t-online.de (Axel H. Horns)]

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Offenbar scheinen die "Sicherheitskreise" in den USA und den anderen
G7-Staaten eine Chance zu wittern, vor der Einfuehrung von IPv6 noch
schnell ein paar Features durchzusetzen, um TCP/IP besser fuer
Surveillance-Beduerfnisse herrichten zu koennen ...


- ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 7 Jan 1998 16:20:54 -0500
To:            cryptography@c2.net
From:          Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
Subject:       Governments want to change Net architecture

========

Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 07:44:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: FC: Governments want to change Net architecture, from Comm
Daily X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/

[Apologies to Art for not forwarding this earlier. --Declan]

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 10:28:49 -0500
From: Art Brodsky <arb@well.com>
To: declan@smtp.well.com
Subject: comm daily story

Declan,
 Here's the story from Comm Daily, Dec. 17

'Optimistic and Damned Silly'

     INTERNET CHANGE FOCUS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

     Law enforcement officials of U.S. and 7 other industrialized
countries want to make fundamental changes in Internet technology in
order to aid in their ability to track and catch criminals, Justice
Dept. sources said.

     Program to consider changes in Internet architectures comes as
part of agreement announced last week by Attorney Gen. Janet Reno and
Justice ministers from around world after meeting in Washington (CD
Dec 11 p10).  However, one leading Internet authority, MCI Senior Vp
Vinton Cerf, said international group's plan wouldn't work.

     Justice ministers are considering approach similar to that of
Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) program in
U.S., which would make traffic from advanced telecom networks more
accessible to law enforcement entities.  Representatives of Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and U.K., as well as U.S.,
agreed as part of "statement of principles" issued in communique
following 2-day session that:  "To the extent practicable, information
and telecommunications systems should be designed to help prevent and
detect network abuse, and should also facilitate the tracing of
criminals and the collection of evidence."  Several items on "action
plan" issued in support of those principles refer to working with new
technologies to collect critical evidence, developing standards for
authenticating electronic data for use in investigations and
encouraging standards-making bodies to provide public and private
sectors "with standards for reliable and secure telecommunications and
data processing technologies."

     DoJ officials said Dept. may want to talk later with telephone
industry on trap and trace issues, but it's premature to involve them
now in follow-up to international summit.  Instead, they said, they
are looking at broader picture of telecom networks that haven't worked
as closely with law enforcement as they could, and have begun thinking
about Internet protocols.  Internet operates globally with common
protocols, currently Internet Protocol version 4.  Internet engineers
are working on next iteration, version IPv6 (Internet Protocol version
6 -- 5 was experimental attempt that was dropped).  Justice official
said that one problem now is that it's easy to send and receive e-mail
with false address, called "spoofing."

     It would be helpful to law enforcement if information sent
over Internet were tagged, and packets would transmit information
reliably as to where they came from, including user and service
provider, officials said.  Loose analogy would be to compare e-mail
messages to tagging of explosives, so law enforcement can track
explosive material to its source.  DoJ said new protocols could be
designed to make it easier to authenticate messages and to make system
more reliable.  Law enforcement wants to work with industry to
accomplish goal, saying it would help "keep people who are abusing
information technologies from continuing to do it."

     There will be substantial obstacles to law enforcement
concept, however.  Not least of them is that IPv6 will include
sophisticated encryption capabilities as part of protocols.  Such
security isn't built in to Internet now, one of reasons why electronic
commerce has yet to take off, said Mark McFadden, communications dir.
for Commercial Internet eXchange Assn. (CIX). That feature will make
it harder for law enforcement to gain access to information, he said.

     Cerf, co-inventor of Internet protocols, said in interview
that law enforcement's concept of tagging e-mail messages wouldn't
work:  "To imagine that we would instantly create the infrastructure
for that throughout the entire Internet strikes me as optimistic and
damned silly, at least in the short term.  Anyone who anticipates
using tools to guarantee that everything will be traceable is not
going to have a successful outcome."  Technically, such project could
be accomplished, Cerf said, but having administrative infrastructure
to administer it is quite different issue.

     It's possible to have digital signature for every packet of
data, but it would take "an enormous amount of processing, and it's
not clear we have any network computers and routers that could do that
and maintain the traffic flow that's required," Cerf said.  It also
would require that each sender affix digital signature to each piece
of mail, idea that Cerf said couldn't be enforced:  "Frankly, the idea
of trying to guarantee traceability of that kind is far from
implementable."  He said he didn't want to be misunderstood that his
objections were "an argument in favor of criminality." But Cerf said
he worries that "someone relies on what they think is a technical
solution without recognizing all of the administrative mechanics that
need to be put in place."

     Law enforcement has some time to work with Internet community.
McFadden said IPv6 isn't scheduled to be implemented at consumer level
for at least 5 years, possibly as much as 10.  There was some urgency
when it appeared that reservoir of Internet addresses would dry up,
but with progress being made to protect addresses as scarce resource
there's less pressure for new set of protocols, he said.


posted with permission Warren Publishing


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