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NSA Patents The Ability To Spy On You Via The Internet

Surprises

from the think-they'll-start-suing-people? dept

Wed, Sep 21st 2005 6:23pm — Mike Masnick
While the NSA is well known for being quite advanced technically speaking, you don't often associate them with patents. You get the feeling that the NSA prefers to keep its technical know-how as closely-guarded internal secrets. However, perhaps they're branching out a bit. They've patented a geo-location system that tries to pinpoint where you are based on your IP address. Others are already doing the same thing, but it's not clear if they violate this patent. Still, you have to wonder what the NSA is going to do with the patent. If others start figuring out your location, are they going to sue for patent infringement?
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8 Comments

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  1. identicon
    Mousky, 21 Sep 2005 @ 6:50pm

    A ping here, a ping there

    Sounds to me that all they are doing is pinging network stations and network endpoints, taking the smallest number and using a mathematical equation to determine the geographical whereabouts of said network stations and endpoints. How is this patentable? Or more importantly, how is this different from the IP Locator at geobytes? Just wondering.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    will, 21 Sep 2005 @ 7:13pm

    They took down Al Capone for Tax Evasion...

    I suspect they may try to prosecute deliberate attempts at anonymizing or obscuring a node on the network. If the technique used requires information specific to the patent or reverse engineering, they might try bludgeoning folks with IP laws along the lines of the DMCA.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    StaticVector, 21 Sep 2005 @ 8:50pm

    Re: A ping here, a ping there

    The patent might have been granted tuesday, but it was filed December 29, 2000. So, this technology has been around for a while now. That is why you see it just about everywhere these days.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Field, 21 Sep 2005 @ 8:59pm

    Revenue

    Maybe they see it as a revenue-generating mechanism? Think about it: foreign governments and dictatorships, corporations and organizations. A penny per ping? =P

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    GBM, 21 Sep 2005 @ 9:54pm

    No Subject Given

    Wouldn't that give them the ability to track who, what, when, and where illegal downloads are taking place?

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    iosd, 21 Sep 2005 @ 11:12pm

    Discard

    Maybe this is naive, but most networks are now discarding all anonymous traffic, ping included. How does this affect the algorithms they are using?



    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Joost, 22 Sep 2005 @ 5:35am

    Re: Discard

    I don't see how a ICMP Echo (more commonly known as Ping) packet is anonymous, because an ICMP Reply packet has to travel back. Therefore, both destination and source IP addresses are in a ping packet.

    It is possible that ICMP Echo and Reply packets get blocked at some routers, but not because they're anonymous.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    bman, 24 Sep 2005 @ 12:52pm

    Re: Discard

    He means anonymous as connections that didn't originate from with the local network or connections that aren't in the TCP-established state.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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