Sinergy
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Joined: 4/26/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: farglebargle
That's why taps are on the core routers?
Kinda breaks down here. I am assuming you are talking about the "nameservers" that determine network bubbles like .com and .net and .gov and .org and...
While these do sit at the top of the network cloud, they actually do very little routing by themselves.
I send a message from
mailserver.earthlink.net
to somebody at aol.com
Earthlinks mailserver sends it to earthlink's routers. The routers go "Oh, I know how to address it to go to aol" and then sends the message directly to aol, who sends it out to the aol mailservers.
If the routers dont know, then they send it upline to the bigger isp they relate to. Same thing happens.
Eventually, it might get to the root nameserver for .net, but all they would do is pass out the appropriate router address to the one querying it. Tapping a root nameserver would simply provide you the information about what isp sent the message to another isp. They dont actually deal with network traffic; they are a phone book for routers.
Now, having said that...
The way I view the "internet" actually is to visualize a big giant cloud containing the digital representation of you, me, them, etc.
This cloud runs over the telephone infrastructure which manages digital switching technology. The telephone company, as part of their digital infrastructure, performs the recording in order to maintain quality. They actually maintain a sufficient amount of digital storage to maintain things for quite some time. They have to, internet traffic is not a steady flow, it spikes and has lulls. The storage is here, there, everywhere.
I worked for Qwest software when ATT was sued for turning over their digital information to AnencephalyBoy. Qwest refused to do so, citing constitutional guarantees and privacy of their users, and demanded a search warrant before they would turn anything over.
This is not technically a "wiretap." This is a business that normally records things for their own purposes turning it over to a Government agency to perform illegal search and seizures and privacy violations on that companies customers. That is why ATT is being sued, and the Federal Government is not up on criminal charges. ATT did not have to provide the information that the law states they are required to not provide it to the Federal Government.
The Federal government does not have the storage capability to keep much of this information, and they lack the computing power to do much more than a superficial scan of the information.
Sinergy
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RE: Yes, they really are monitoring all internet traffi... - 
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