Electronic Communication Interception Technologies and Issues of Power

Daniel Ventre has a PhD in political science and is a researcher at CESDIP Laboratory (CNRS, Paris-Saclay University, France). His research focuses on cybersecurity, cybercrime and cyber defense.Philippe Guillot has a PhD in computer science and taught cryptology and its history at the University of Paris 8, France. He is also a member of the ARCSI.

• Introduction ixChapter 1 History and Repertoire of Communication Interception Practices 11.1 Military interceptions during the war 71.1.1 The interception of telegraphic communications 71.1.2 The interception of radio communications 131.1.3 Telephone interception 161.1.4 The use of SIGINT capabilities 181.1.5 Wartime interceptions in cyberspace 211.1.6 Drones and interceptions 231.2 The interception of international communications: espionage, surveillance, war 231.2.1 The interception of telegrams 231.2.2 Espionage during the Cold War: satellite, radio, telephone interceptions 241.2.3 The interception of international communications: the Echelon program 251.2.4 Bulk cyber surveillance 271.2.5 Foreign companies in national telecommunication infrastructures 281.2.6 Actions over undersea Internet cables 291.2.7 Interceptions in planes and airports 301.2.8 International interceptions as a product of secret alliances 301.3 Interception of diplomatic correspondence 311.4 Political surveillance: targeted and bulk interceptions 331.4.1 Interception of correspondence 331.4.2 Bulk domestic surveillance in East Germany 361.4.3 Cyber surveillance in Russia: the SORM system 361.4.4 Fixed and mobile telephone tapping 371.4.5 The interception of electronic communications in the political sphere 401.5 Criminal interceptions 421.6 Police, justice: the fight against crime, lawful interceptions 441.7 On the usefulness and effectiveness of interceptions 45Chapter 2 The Central Issue of Encryption 552.1 The capabilities required for interceptions 552.1.1 Material, technological capabilities 562.1.2 Human resources 792.2 Protecting yourself against the threat of interceptions: encryption 872.2.1 The public key revolution 882.2.2 Advances in factorization 892.2.3 Shor’s quantum algorithm 912.2.4 The evolution of computing capabilities 932.2.5 The evolution of etching precision 942.3 Attacking encrypted communications, circumventing the hurdle of encryption 942.3.1 Interceptions on encrypted messaging 952.3.2 The attacks against keys and PKIs 1042.3.3 The use of backdoors 108Chapter 3 Power Struggles 1313.1 State pressure on the industry: cooperation or coercion logics? 1313.2 The accounts of whistleblowers and their analyses of the balance of power between the state, the citizen and companies 1363.2.1 The account of Herbert O Yardley 1363.2.2 The account of Perry Fellwock (also known as Winslow Peck) 1373.2.3 The account of Mark Klein 1383.2.4 The account of James Bamford 1423.2.5 The account of Babak Pasdar 1453.2.6 The account of Joseph Nacchio 1463.2.7 The account of Edward Snowden 1463.2.8 The account of Julian Assange 1483.3 Limits imposed on the state’s power to control technology 1493.3.1 The difficult and fragile international regulation of technologies 1493.3.2 Illicit markets and the circumvention of laws 1543.4 Trust 1623.4.1 How much confidence in encryption? 1633.4.2 The acceleration of calculations as a factor of confidence 1643.4.3 Abandoning secret methods 1653.4.4 Provable security 1673.4.5 The worlds of Impagliazzo 1693.4.6 The contribution of quantum computing 1723.5 Conclusion 1733.5.1 Technologies 1733.5.2 Actors 1743.5.3 Interactions or relationships 175Appendices 179References 201Index 217