We take everything coming through our switch and dump it off at the FBI

"We’re allowing a whole new level of intelligence in the networks...We can take a copy of everything coming through our switch and dump it off to the FBI."

The Surveillance Catalog: Where Governments Get Their Spying Tools The Wall Street Journal has obtained a "trove" of documents from the secretive retail market in surveillance technology sold to world governments, and has created a searchable database for your enjoyment. "Among the most controversial technologies on display at the conference were essentially computer-hacking tools to enable government agents to break into people's computers and cellphones, log their keystrokes and access their data..." E.g., FinFisher installs malware by sending fake software updates for Blackberry and other devices; VUPEN's Exploits for Law Enforcement Agencies "aim to deliver exclusive exploit codes for undisclosed vulnerabilities" in software from Microsoft, Apple and others.

In interviews in Dubai, executives at several companies said they were aware their products could be abused by authoritarian regimes but they can't control their use after a sale. "This is the dilemma," said Klaus Mochalski, co-founder of ipoque, a German company specializing in deep-packet inspection, a powerful technology that analyzes Internet traffic. "It's like a knife. You can always cut vegetables but you can also kill your neighbor." He referred to it as "a constant moral, ethical dilemma we have."

http://www.metafilter.com/109635/Were-allowing-a-whole-new-level-of-intelligence-in-the-networksWe-can-take-a-copy-of-everything-coming-through-our-switch-and-dump-it-off-to-the-FBI