[LINK] ITU & UN approve deep packet inspection

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

"U.N. summit votes to support Internet eavesdropping"

by Declan McCullagh, December 5th 2012 
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57557347-38/u.n-summit-votes-to-
support-internet-eavesdropping/>


A United Nations summit has adopted confidential recommendations proposed 
by China that will help network providers target BitTorrent uploaders, 
detect trading of copyrighted MP3 files, and, critics say, accelerate 
Internet censorship in repressive nations.

Approval by the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union came 
despite objections from Germany, which warned the organization must "not 
standardize any technical means that would increase the exercise of 
control over telecommunications content, could be used to empower any 
censorship of content, or could impede the free flow of information and 
ideas." 

The ITU adopted the confidential Y.2770 standard for deep packet 
inspection -- only members, not the public, currently have access to the 
document -- last month during a meeting in Dubai. A related ITU meeting 
in Dubai, which has drawn sharp criticism from the U.S. government and 
many Internet companies, began this week. 

Because Y.2770 is confidential, many details remain opaque:

   http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/workprog/wp_item.aspx?isn=7082

But a document (PDF) posted by a Korean standards body describes how 
network operators will be able to identify "embedded digital watermarks 
in MP3 data," discover "copyright protected audio content," find "Jabber 
messages with Spanish text," or "identify uploading BitTorrent users." 
Jabber is also known as XMPP, an instant messaging protocol.

In a joint blog post, Alissa Cooper and Emma Llansó from the Center for 
Democracy and Technology say that the U.N. agency "barely acknowledges 
that DPI has privacy implications, let alone does it provide a thorough 
analysis of how the potential privacy threats associated with the 
technology might be mitigated." 

DPI is, of course, deep packet inspection, a technology that serves many 
useful purposes, including fending off network attacks, detecting 
malware, and prioritizing critical applications over ones that are less 
time-sensitive. But it's controversial when used for legal and extra-
legal government surveillance, and some network operators -- including 
Verizon Wireless -- have edged in this direction for advertising-related 
purposes as well. 

Cooper and Llansó add: "Mandatory standards are a bad idea even when they 
are well designed. Forcing the world's technology companies to adopt 
standards developed in a body that fails to conduct rigorous privacy 
analysis could have dire global consequences for online trust and users' 
rights." 

Germany had asked a European telecommunications body called CEPT, which 
includes 48 member nations, to "take a stand" against the ITU proposal, 
which was advanced by China's Fiberhome network provider. Germany's 
concerns about Y.2770, which is formally titled "Requirements for Deep 
Packet Inspection in Next Generation Networks," appear in a document (MS 
Word) made available by CEPT. 

After discussions, CEPT decided that its member "countries consider that 
they cannot oppose" Y.2770, according to a report (MS Word) from its 
October meeting in Istanbul, meaning that no Europe-wide position would 
be taken against the ITU proposal. 

ITU representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment 
this morning from CNET (we'll update the article if they do). But an ITU 
study group describes its mission as developing recommendations 
for "requirements, architectures, mechanisms, and functionalities" used 
in deep packet inspection: "This includes study on flexible and effective 
DPI mechanisms that allow network devices to look at the packet header 
and payload." 

Another controversial section of Y.2770 is that it contemplates having 
network operators decrypt their customers' Internet traffic so it can be 
inspected. 

A partial early draft (PDF) of Y.2770, called Y.dpireq at the time, that 
was made public in 2009 does not mention encryption, BitTorrent, or 
inspecting the contents of instant message communications. 

One reason why deep packet inspection is so controversial is that it has 
been used by repressive regimes -- dozens of which are members of the 
ITU -- to conduct extensive surveillance against their own citizens. 

A Wall Street Journal report last year described how Amesys, a unit of 
French technology firm Bull SA, helped Moammar Gadhafi spy on his people. 
Boeing's Narus unit was in talks with Libya about controlling Skype, 
censoring YouTube, and blocking proxy servers, the Journal reported. In 
August, The New York Times reported that malware known as FinSpy, sold by 
a British company called the Gamma Group, could activate computer cameras 
and microphones and had been linked to repressive governments including 
Turkmenistan, Brunei, and Bahrain. 

This isn't the first time that an ITU proposal has been criticized for 
its implications for Internet censorship. In 2008, CNET disclosed that 
the ITU was quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese 
government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet 
communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain 
anonymous.

A leaked document showed the trace-back mechanism was designed to be used 
by a government that "tries to identify the source of the negative 
articles" published by an anonymous author.

Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. Declan 
previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for 
Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money 
column for CBS News' Web site.
--

Cheers,
Stephen