Homeland Security to use its Einstein technology on private networks

03-04-2010 • news.cnet.com/

If it can perform deep packet inspection to prevent botnets from accessing certain Web pages, for instance, could it also be used to prevent a human from accessing illegal pornography, copyright-infringing music, or offshore gambling sites? "It\'s one thing for the government to monitor its own systems for malicious code and intrusions," said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It\'s quite another for the government to monitor private networks for those intrusions. We\'d be concerned about any notion that a governmental monitoring system like Einstein would be extended to private networks."

1 Comments in Response to Homeland Security to use its Einstein technology on private networks

Comment by Justen Robertson

Entered on: 3/5/2010 12:26:31 PM

Deep packet inspection relies on using heuristics to measure predictable patterns. This is a fairly trivial thing to overcome, it just involves increasing the noise:signal ratio to blur out the patterns. In other words, this technology is only going to cause people to waste a lot of additional bandwidth to ensure their privacy.

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