Top secret group

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LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER

National Security Agency gets fix on Internet users.

 

Top secret group applies for patent to ID (identify) physical address of Web

surfers.

 

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Posted: September 25, 2005

1:00 a.m. Eastern

 

 

 

© 2005 www.WorldNetDaily.com

 

Internet users hoping to protect their privacy by using anti-virus software,

Web anonymizers, false identities and disabled cookies on their computer's

Web browser have something new to worry about – a patent filed by the

National Security Agency (NSA) for technology that will identify the

physical location of any Web surfer.

 

Patent 6,947,978, granted this week, describes a process based on latency,

or time lag between computers exchanging data, of "numerous" known locations

on the Internet to build a "network latency topology map" for all users.

Identifying the physical location of an individual user, reports CNET

News.com, could then be accomplished by measuring how long it takes to

connect to an unknown computer from numerous known machines, and using the

latency response to display location on a map.

 

 

The rate at which data travels over the Internet constantly varies due to

the amount of traffic, the size of data files, the constant changing of

hardware and software by millions of users. Sometimes the system is slow,

sometimes it is fast. Because of this variation, knowing how long it takes

for a signal to travel to a location and back is not sufficient to identify

it's location. But knowing the latency of the entire system at a given

moment and the latency for a specific computer provides a means of knowing

relative locations, however fast or slow the Internet is operating.

 

While most users are unaware of it, their computers are able to "ping"

website addresses to trace the route their connection took and how much time

was required to complete the operation. Likewise other computer users –

hackers, for example – can ping their computer as well when connected to the

Internet. It is this feature that the NSA's patent seeks to exploit.

 

The NSA patent does not describe the intended use of the technology by the

agency, noting only general uses like measuring the "effectiveness of

advertising across geographic regions" or flagging a password that "could be

noted or disabled if not used from or near the appropriate location,"

according to CNET News. But given NSA's status as the nation's premier

cryptologic organization, it's unlikely the technology will be used to

improve advertising.

 

NSA is so secret that its acronym has been said to stand for "No Such

Agency." According to its website, "the National Security Agency/Central

Security Service ... coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized

activities to protect U.S. government information systems and produce

foreign signals intelligence information. A high technology organization,

NSA is on the frontiers of communications and data processing. It is also

one of the most important centers of foreign language analysis and research

within the government."

 

The agency has come under fire in the past for spying on American citizens.

In the 1970s, the agency was forced to admit that it had used its

eavesdropping equipment against Jane Fonda and other anti-Vietnam War

activists. The revelation led to a 1978 law banning spying by the agency on

U.S. citizens and resident aliens anywhere.

 

 

In 2000, following reports revealing the existence of Echelon, a massive

data-mining project that filtered electronic and voice communications around

the world, then director of the National Security Agency, Air Force Lt. Gen.

Michael Hayden, and his boss, CIA Director George Tenet, assured Congress,

"We protect the rights of Americans and their privacy. We do not violate

them and we never will."

 

"If, as we are speaking this afternoon, Osama bin Laden is walking across

the peace bridge from Niagara Falls, Ontario, to Niagara Falls, New York, as

he gets to the New York side, he is an American person and my agency must

respect his rights against unreasonable search and seizure as provided by

the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution," Hayden testified.

 

Post-9-11, if bin Laden goes online, NSA may actually know where he is.

 

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46501