https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/08/surveillance-of-the-internet-backbone.html Schneier on Security Menu * Blog * Newsletter * Books * Essays * News * Talks * Academic * About Me Search Powered by DuckDuckGo [ ] [Go] ( ) Blog ( ) Essays (*) Whole site Subscribe Atom FeedFacebookTwitterKindleE-Mail Newsletter (Crypto-Gram) HomeBlog Surveillance of the Internet Backbone Vice has an article about how data brokers sell access to the Internet backbone. This is netflow data. It's useful for cybersecurity forensics, but can also be used for things like tracing VPN activity. At a high level, netflow data creates a picture of traffic flow and volume across a network. It can show which server communicated with another, information that may ordinarily only be available to the server owner or the ISP carrying the traffic. Crucially, this data can be used for, among other things, tracking traffic through virtual private networks, which are used to mask where someone is connecting to a server from, and by extension, their approximate physical location. In the hands of some governments, that could be dangerous. Tags: cybersecurity, forensics, Internet, privacy, surveillance, tracking, traffic analysis Posted on August 25, 2021 at 10:13 AM * 9 Comments Comments NombreNoImportane' * August 25, 2021 10:43 AM This has the makings of a Dystopian nightmare. ResearcherZero * August 25, 2021 11:06 AM I am also "concerned that netflow data being offered for commercial purposes is a path to a dark fxxking place," echo * August 25, 2021 11:15 AM So traffic analysis for plebs? This makes what happens at the governance layer at the top more important. Because of its huge size the US has a massive distorting effect internationally due to its refusal to bring UN obligations within its own legal framework. I have been "advised" by legal scholars at the very top of the US legal system this is a "done deal". Myself I feel this falls more into "they would say that". It naturally follows regulation as well as cultural and business practice and other issues come under the spotlight. These data brokers are the end result of this sausage factory. Then include individual silos buying and selling data and de-anonymisation. No I don't trust the US and wonder how much espionage plays its role in things like Koch Industries of all people taking over Morrisons, and the ARM takeover, and Liberty Media buying up Virgin Media (which is really a takeover of the branding obtained by NTL which bought up Telewest and everyone else), and Lockheed processing census data, and Palantair getting its grubby mits on NHS data to a level only UK security services had previously. Also I never did get an answer to who owned Team Cymru and where they were based. I'm also very doubtful about any "security" company focusing on "tech" which does't place things in the bigger context. Oh, wait. They have a product to sell: "Pure Signal Recon". That explains a lot. AN * August 25, 2021 12:37 PM @echo It's all used to screw us over. I too wonder which country is responsible for that group? echo * August 25, 2021 2:43 PM @echo Team Cymru is comprised of former... [...] Military - US and allied nations etc. https://team-cymru.com/company/ They may be lying, but they ain't hiding. Nicknamed "The Little Silicon Valley", Lake Mary is home to many computer software companies and other high-tech businesses https://team-cymru.com/company/careers/ name.withheld.for.obvious.reasons * August 25, 2021 3:08 PM Uh Oh, sounds like a Cisco firewall problem... If I remember, GCHQ was very interested in something like this back in the late oughts and early teens. name.withheld.for.obvious.reasons * August 25, 2021 3:21 PM @Guessing or #Not2FunnyEither There is a server or two somewhere chewing away at this, probably to flatten the Basyian nodes and improve the Kalman filtering of raw signal. Hedo * August 25, 2021 3:28 PM I, a nobody, figured it out a long time ago. I am very saddened by the fact that "Freedom" in America is still being "sold" to her citizens and the rest of the world. We the People are financing it all and can't do shite about it. DISGUSTING. Clive Robinson * August 25, 2021 4:01 PM @ ALL, This is kind of old news... OK it's nice of Vice-Motherboard to tie a bow around and name one of several names involved[1] but lets be honest folks who realy did not think this sort of surveillance was happening? I've mentioned for years that people realy need to look at the geo-map of the Internet and where it physicallt was/is. That is where all the choke and landing points are along with the geo-politics of who's jurisdictions they fall in and the fact the Internet is built on an "All Roads Lead to Rome" format with the US being like the female spider sitting in the middle of the web listing to the vibrations. I've even mentiond the UN ITU 2014 meeting in Doha, where the Internet very nearly ceased to be, with various nations voting to split out most of the services currently under US control. Also how many times do people need reminding that in the US the idea is to "market everything" no matter how worthless or how much harm it causes. So at the end of the day there will always be "bottom feeders" looking for Angels to invest in their pointless and frequently worthless schemes. With the idea of puffing it up and selling it on, more than half those ICT Startups have no product or customers, yet they chase investors... With such toxic behaviour being rife, it must surely have made people realise that every byte that moves on the internet was turned into a product years ago, all it needed was slick presentation. [1] By the way "Cmyru" is Welsh for Wales (that small country attached to the West sied of England). Whilst the company has US and English offices, I do bot believesve they have anywhere in Wales... Kind of makes a statment about them realy. Atom Feed Subscribe to comments on this entry Leave a comment Cancel reply Login Name [ ] Email [ ] URL: [ ] [ ] Remember personal info? Fill in the blank: the name of this blog is Schneier on ___________ (required): [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Comments: [ ] [loader] Allowed HTML * * * *
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