[jya@pipeline.com: German/Cuban Snooping]

[Ulf Möller <ulf@fitug.de>]

Welche deutsche Firma könnte das sein?

----- Forwarded message from John Young <jya@pipeline.com> -----

>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[...]

       Castro and his Minister of Interior have succeeded in 
     implementing a program of very tight control of Cuba's access 
     to the Internet and are opposed to expanding the 
     telecommunications sector and Internet. The Cubans also 
     completely control the Internet server provider (ISP). The 
     Cubans have an intra-island Internet with which university-
     approved people and others have access. In addition, there 
     are several Internet sites within Cuban which are available. 
     In terms of international internet, individual Cubans can 
     access only those sites approved for them. For example, a 
     medical university may have access to certain medical sites, 
     but each is encrypted, monitored and recorded.

       At the same time, the rapid technical advances in the world 
     telecommunications industry create a serious dilemma for the 
     Cuban regime. They need to have their key people on Internet 
     for scientific and educational reasons, but are hesitant to 
     grant unlimited access. To restrict this, they have worked 
     with a German encryption and monitoring firm to keep track of 
     ``who does what'' on Internet in Cuba. The Castro regime is 
     making a strong effort to record all e-mail and all other 
     computer transmissions. The delegation was advised that while 
     Cubans now eagerly exchange e-mail transmissions--each 
     delegation member received calling cards with e-mail 

     addresses--all e-mail is monitored and recorded through one 
     central server. While Cuban officials would not acknowledge 
     this, the delegation was advised that only about 200 Cubans 
     have complete, unfettered access to the Internet. The Cuban 
     government has not resolved the basic conflict of how it can 
     aspire to being a modern technological state without allowing 
     more of its people access to the complete international 
     internet With--technological advances proceeding to mind-
     numbing speed, it is reasonable to assume that Castro will 
     not be able to deter major information flows arriving in 
     Cuba. It should be U.S. policy to foster this information 
     revolution.

     ...

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----- End forwarded message -----