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A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

theintercept.com

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Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#21

Post by tptacek »

tedunangst wrote: post #20
tptacek wrote: post #15

This article perfectly illustrates a major flaw in surveillance journalism. As luck would have it, I'm pretty familiar with Endace --- or was, back in 2003-2005. I was at Arbor Networks then. Arbor does large-scale network instrumentation for anti-DDoS and performance monitoring. By the time I left, every major ISP in the world had their network instrumented with Arbor gear. We'd had lots of conversations with Endace…

If we're going to hunt all the witches, may as well practice on the little ones.

The problem is that the obsessive focus The Intercept has on these kinds of scoops, where they've identified a "key player" in the surveillance market that nobody has heard of --- EXCLUSIVE MUST CREDIT INTERCEPT --- creates a narrative in which technical surveillance is mostly attributable to a number of small rogue companies.

But nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of money Endace made on enabling GCHQ surveillance is literally a rounding error compared to the invoices that the tech giants generated on the same projects. We are letting the giants off the hook, and hammering these doofuses from New Zealand who just want to find a way to make money building packet capture cards. I almost have a hard time blaming them: packet capture cards are fun to work on but difficult to make a viable business out of. At least I understand a sort of relatable motivation for what Endace did. No such motivation exists for the GSA/FGA sales teams of the tech giants. If their firms sold murder-robots, those teams would happily sell them to North Korea if they could.

Endace deserves the attention, but the giants deserve it more, and they're getting let off the hook.

Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#22

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

tptacek wrote: post #15

This article perfectly illustrates a major flaw in surveillance journalism. As luck would have it, I'm pretty familiar with Endace --- or was, back in 2003-2005. I was at Arbor Networks then. Arbor does large-scale network instrumentation for anti-DDoS and performance monitoring. By the time I left, every major ISP in the world had their network instrumented with Arbor gear. We'd had lots of conversations with Endace…

Not sure who's letting the giants off the hook. We all know NSA, GCHQ et al government actors are snooping all they can snoop. People are afraid and disgusted of the practice enough that it must be a consideration for firms who want to seel that sort of tech. More importantly, it's probably keeping a good chunk of the smarter, more skilled engineers away from those firms.

I mean, small player or not, naming and shaming Endace is a small step towards taking down the big giants, or at least one little point of damage to their plans.

Besides, we the people are reduced to guerilla warfare, here. We can't just attack the giants directly. But you need to start with something, no?

Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#23

Post by tptacek »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #22
tptacek wrote: post #15

This article perfectly illustrates a major flaw in surveillance journalism. As luck would have it, I'm pretty familiar with Endace --- or was, back in 2003-2005. I was at Arbor Networks then. Arbor does large-scale network instrumentation for anti-DDoS and performance monitoring. By the time I left, every major ISP in the world had their network instrumented with Arbor gear. We'd had lots of conversations with Endace…

Not sure who's letting the giants off the hook. We all know NSA, GCHQ et al government actors are snooping all they can snoop. People are afraid and disgusted of the practice enough that it must be a consideration for firms who want to seel that sort of tech. More importantly, it's probably keeping a good chunk of the smarter, more skilled engineers away from those firms. I mean, small player or not, naming and shami…

I'm not talking about NSA and GCHQ. I'm talking about commercial vendors who serve as their arms dealers. Endace is a minnow in that market. Most of the money goes to just a few sharks. I'm saying that journalists need to stop fishing for minnows just because their stories are easier to tell.

Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#24

Post by tedunangst »

tptacek wrote: post #21
tedunangst wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to hunt all the witches, may as well practice on the little ones.

The problem is that the obsessive focus The Intercept has on these kinds of scoops, where they've identified a "key player" in the surveillance market that nobody has heard of --- EXCLUSIVE MUST CREDIT INTERCEPT --- creates a narrative in which technical surveillance is mostly attributable to a number of small rogue companies. But nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of money Endace made on enabling GC…

Not unlike The Thirteen Bankers. If it weren't for these individuals, everything would be just dandy.

Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#25

Post by tptacek »

tedunangst wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the obsessive focus The Intercept has on these kinds of scoops, where they've identified a "key player" in the surveillance market that nobody has heard of --- EXCLUSIVE MUST CREDIT INTERCEPT --- creates a narrative in which technical surveillance is mostly attributable to a number of small rogue companies. But nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of money Endace made on enabling GC…

Not unlike The Thirteen Bankers. If it weren't for these individuals, everything would be just dandy.

That is perfect. Thank you.

Re: A Little-Known Company That Enables Mass Surveillance

#26

Post by jlgaddis »

Gigamon, who has both an office in Milpitas and a government sales division (including for overseas governments), makes photonic tapping systems that are also pretty useful for this mass surveillance kind of stuff.

Five years ago, they had a box capable of handling 1 Tbps and assured us that bigger, beefier ones were coming. US DoD was a customer then and, I'm sure, still is.

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