ALL YOUR EMAIL ARE BELONG TO US!

May 30, 2001 9:56 AM

ALL YOUR EMAIL ARE BELONG TO US! How serious is this threat? What precautions do you routinely take? What precautions do you think you *should* be taking? What viable options do we have today, for those of us who aren't computer programmers by profession? And how secure are they, anyway?
posted by rushmc (12 comments total)

Its not something I worry about at all. I don't have any sensitive information and if I did I wouldn't use e-mail as a means of giving it to someone else.

Abstinence is the best policy.
posted by howa2396 at 10:46 AM on May 30, 2001

It's probably true. I used to live near the Menwith Hill base (pictured in the article) and went to school on the base. Just to get on the base you needed an ID card. There are buildings on the base that I never went into because you needed a certain level of security that I or my parents did not have to gain access. The dad of my best friend in the fifth grade spoke twelve languages and one of his jobs was translation (among other things).

A few years ago I met up with another friend who I went to school with there back in the 1980s. I mentioned that I never really did know what her dad did for a living. She responded "Either did we" and proceeded to tell me that he is now retired from the CIA. Apparently his job was top-secret enough that he couldn't even tell his family what he did on a day-to-day basis.
posted by camworld at 11:04 AM on May 30, 2001

I warned about the Ft. Meade crowd. (so patient, such good benefits)That can get Bellish...ookland I call it. stuff we never will see...OR HAVE WE. so this means...zip the goodies....(John has a long-mustache) the mail is nothing to mess with.biz
posted by clavdivs at 11:14 AM on May 31, 2001

Clavde, I think there was some line noise or something there. Instead of your usual eloquent Ciceronian prose I got a bunch of random fragments.
posted by rodii at 11:22 AM on May 31, 2001

the ether houses of Maryland and Virgina.camworld does not know, know we are not, nonexistent, never where here nonentities..nowhere to be seen...until, puff, they can say...they where never there. the asks the why.
posted by clavdivs at 11:23 AM on May 31, 2001

A good way to get the NSA to create a file on you would be to encrypt all your overseas email. (I'm guessing)

It would also be a good way to shut this whole thing down.

If 1% of email users would send emails to Europe with "Bush", "bomb", and "plan" in the subject, Echelon would collapse. Ditto for using PGP encryption.

I'm all for counter terrorism, but the idea that my government has an agency that reads every single email, fax, and phone call makes me a bit.......... uncomfortable.

Big brother is here. Everyone knows that. And we seem to be okay with it???? The NSA is dangerous.
posted by y6y6y6 at 12:10 PM on May 31, 2001

Ah, good old Echelon (nice FAQ here). It's been a couple of years since a university lecturer casually mentioned in one of my lectures that everything I sent down a phoneline, in whatever format, got intercepted and processed by this system. He was particularly indignant that info that had been captured at GCHQ was subsequently used by the US to outmanoeuvre the UK in securing large commercial contracts.

But what you gonna do? If you encrypt your email then who are you going to send it to? Not many people are capable of handling encrypted email. And what about your standard phonecalls? It's a case of get paranoid or get sensible. Don't go emailing that procedure for performing cold fusion or proof that you're an international spy to all of your mates on a whim. Think about it.
posted by MUD at 1:19 PM on May 31, 2001

Echelon isn't really news.
posted by ktheory at 2:36 PM on May 31, 2001

No it isn't. Let's try to stick to the ephemeral and let other sites worry about what matters.
posted by Twang at 3:03 PM on May 31, 2001

hell if one where King Digit, you would record as much as you could anywho,anywhere...why?, that seems obvious. It is old news because it is evident. Evident in its inception.(known without empirical proof)What happened to good old fashion burst transmitters and lemon juice.
posted by clavdivs at 7:59 PM on May 31, 2001

;-j
posted by lagado at 11:27 PM on May 31, 2001

you need more mark twain.
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on June 1, 2001