Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 15th Mar 2012 22:06 UTC
"If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider has been watching, and they're coming for you. Specifically, they're coming for you on Thursday, July 12. That's the date when the nation's largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users' bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials." One day, years from now, historians are going to debate whether this was the point of no return.
Thread beginning with comment 510922
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[2]: Comment by darkcoder
by Soulbender on Sat 17th Mar 2012 05:43
in reply to "RE: Comment by darkcoder"
Member since:2005-08-18
Current network equipment can already do deep packet inspection on a per packet basis
deep packet inspection is mostly snake-oil and it certainly won't work in the ISP core networks.
depending on what they're looking for they might simply flag certain packets in real time for additional analysis.
This would require existing equipment to not use the switching ASIC's and instead process every single packet on their main CPU. Anyone who has ever seen a hardware router process packets on the main CPU would not ever recommend this course of action. In short, it dies.
Network routers are already designed to do data lookups very quickly anyways
No they're not and doing lookups into what would be very large tables is not something they could handle. Especially not the hilariously under powered Cisco devices which for some inexplicable reason are very popular.
What they could do is mirror *all* the packets somewhere else but that destination better be a quantum computer because doing "deep packet inspection" on tbps of data and millions and millions of concurrent streams is not going to be an easy task.
Alternatively you would need to deploy tens of thousands of new devices closer to the customer and even then you need some way to coordinate all this information, distribute new watch lists etc.
Neither of these are going to happen.
RE[3]: Comment by darkcoder
by Alfman on Sun 18th Mar 2012 03:00
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by darkcoder"
Member since:2011-01-28
Soulbender,
"deep packet inspection is mostly snake-oil and it certainly won't work in the ISP core networks."
I am interested in hearing your reason for saying this.
"This would require existing equipment to not use the switching ASIC's and instead process every single packet on their main CPU. Anyone who has ever seen a hardware router process packets on the main CPU would not ever recommend this course of action. In short, it dies."
Well I'm not sure what the limits are of *existing* ISP network equipment, but we don't really know that they won't be purchasing new equipment specially for this purpose.
A cpu based monitor would be one implementation. If we were to take the idea seriously, I think a highly optimized dual core 3ghz system should be able to handle a gigabit feed with up to 36000*2 cycles per packet, and it's possible that not all packets will be scanned (http/email/etc). The scheme does not strike me as infeasible.
I also think a specialized ASIC would work too, and they could easily run in parallel.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:35 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/11/13 17:07 UTC
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/10/13 23:13 UTC
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/08/13 14:57 UTC
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/07/13 11:40 UTC
This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/04/13 12:45 UTC
Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
Linked by nfeske on 05/31/13 10:12 UTC
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/29/13 16:59 UTC
At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!More Features »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2011-01-28
darkcoder,
"How many clients AT&T have with Internet access, like a million? Now imaging sniffing packets of a million accounts every day. You will need some supercomputers just for that. So NO, Packet sniffing IS NOT GONNA HAPPEND."
I don't know the real scoop, but technically they could snoop only a subset of users at any given time. Current network equipment can already do deep packet inspection on a per packet basis, depending on what they're looking for they might simply flag certain packets in real time for additional analysis.
It's just speculation but I believe the way these things will work is that ISPs will be given a watch list of signatures to look for. Network routers are already designed to do data lookups very quickly anyways, looking for blacklisted hashes might not be that much different. If the device is fed from a splice of the network, it can dedicate all it's resources to the blacklist.
I don't know how things will play out, but I wouldn't rule out the technology to do it.