On: Internet Giants Erect Barriers to Spy Agencies

[balls187]

If the NSA is capble of MITM attacks, Google laying their own Fiber seems not like a good solution.

What would prevent the NSA from going into the ocean and tapping direct?

[ewoodrich → balls187]

Encryption? Or the relative difficulty of needing to use a submarine of some sort, instead of tapping directly into Room 641A, for example?

[balls187 → ewoodrich]

Certainly getting at Room 641A would be easier, but for the US Government, nothing seems out of reach, resource wise.

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought the revelation was that the NSA can routinely break encryption schemes.

Also, I thought it was against US export law to use certain types of encryption for data leaving the US.

[pacificmint → ewoodrich]

Of course encryption would help. But for that you don't need your own fiber. So balls187's point still stands.

> Or the relative difficulty of needing to use a submarine of some sort

They overcame that difficulty. The USS Jimmy Carter was specifically outfitted to be able to tap into undersea cables.