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Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 12:45:42 -0400
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From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
Subject: Cryptome afloat despite Deepwater's ripple - Online resource
manages to weather defense contractor scandal despite being shut down
by its ISP
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/08/Cryptome-afloat-despite-Deepwater's-ripple_1.html
Cryptome afloat despite Deepwater's ripple
Online resource manages to weather defense contractor scandal despite
being shut down by its ISP
By Matt Hines
May 08, 2007
The Deepwater defense contractor scandal has echoed from the halls of
Congress across the World Wide Web, and despite being shut down by
its ISP after posting documents considered central to the
controversy, online resource Cryptome.org remains alive.
On May 7, Cryptome transferred its archives to Network Solutions, a
move necessitated by a termination of service notice received from
its previous Internet service provider, Verio, on April 18.
Since Cryptome was founded in 1999, Englewood, Colo.-based Verio had
weathered a stream of complaints from people who took issue with
controversial documents posted to the site's pages, yet the firm
allowed the resource to remain online.
But on the same date that Cryptome's operator first posted key
Congressional testimony about Deepwater -- a military procurement
fraud scandal currently under investigation by Congress and the
United States Department of Justice -- Verio suddenly gave the site
two weeks notice to find another home.
Cryptome, founded and operated by John Young, a 72-year-old architect
from New York, is an exercise in the dissemination of notorious
information. Over the years the site has angered the likes of British
Intelligence and the Japanese Ministry of Justice, along with
stateside government and business officials, for posting declassified
documents, photos, and maps that the groups weren't happy to see
surfacing online.
In previous instances, Young claims that Verio customer support
workers went to great lengths to inform him that Cryptome was being
investigated, or that the ISP had received formal requests to take it
offline. But the April termination notice came with no explanation,
he said, with Young's contacts at the firm turning unresponsive and
the company offering no specific details of the circumstances that
led to its demise.
In a statement, Verio officials would give no hint of any factors
that contributed to Cryptome's termination, other than stating that
the site had violated its acceptable use policy.
"Verio's decision to terminate Cryptome in this instance resulted
from a situation, different from those presented in the past that
Verio was unable to reconcile with its [use policy]," the company
said. "Based on this situation, Verio made the decision that a
different course of action was required. Verio is confident that it
has been fair and consistent in its approach to these matters, and
stands by its decision in this instance."
While the ISP claims that it acted independently, and that it
"respects the rights of its customers and those of third parties,"
Young, and others familiar with the Deepwater scandal contend that
Verio folded to some form of outside pressure based on the testimony
that was posted.
What else would explain the sudden change of position, questions
Young, who wonders why the ISP worked amicably with the site in the
past to edit or delete content that was proven to be somehow
inappropriate or classified, before pulling the plug with no
explanation mere hours after the Deepwater testimony went live.
"We typically get about a half dozen complaints per year where people
make allegations or claim copyright protection, and there have been
several incidents since September 11th where the government was
involved, but Verio has always been very straightforward about
handling things," said Young.
The site administrator finds it an unlikely coincidence that the
dramatic change of relations occurred on the day he posted the
Deepwater content, which sharply criticizes decision makers in the
U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and contractors Lockheed Martin and
Northrop Grumman.
Some of the testimony, first heard by the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure on April 18, outright blames the massive defense
contractors for engaging in collusion and fraud.
"The FBI has come in many times and told us that we're not illegal,
but the same day we posted the Deepwater stuff, Verio first sent the
letter," Young said. "I think it has to be the government or one of
the contractors that are behind it, somebody who is on the hot seat
because of what the documents say. But I also doubt the ISP would
buckle for a commercial request so, really, it points to someone in
the government telling them to shut us down."
Young's claim might seem self-serving, but he has a unique ally
supporting his claims of government suppression in the form of one of
the very individuals who testified before Congress about one of
Deepwater's biggest problems -- the same issues the testimony posted
to the site had detailed.
James Atkinson is the president of Granite Island Group, Gloucester,
Mass., and a former government intelligence officer who was hired by
Congress to investigate the Deepwater procurement process and report
his findings on Capitol Hill.
An expert in technical surveillance counter measures (TSCMs),
Atkinson found that the Coast Guard cutters outfitted by Lockheed and
Northrup under Deepwater used radios whose encryption specifications
failed to meet government requirements for protecting classified information.
The expert also maintains that the Coast Guard and Navy knew the
systems had failed certification tests for the same reasons, yet had
chosen to both ignore the results and suppress them.
In addition to illustrating some of the explicit problems with
Deepwater, Atkinson said his testimony highlights similar problems
with the radios being used in the Navy's DDX next-generation war ship
program. Those radios were slated to be provided by a joint venture
of the two contractors at the center of the controversy, dubbed
Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS).
As part of the Deepwater investigation, claims that the two firms set
up the joint venture in an effort to rig the contract bidding process
are also being pursued.
Lockheed and Northrup officials didn't respond to calls seeking
comment on Cryptome, nor did representatives with the Navy and Coast Guard.
With much for the contractors, Coast Guard, and Navy to lose over the
unfolding scandal -- which has already cast doubt on the Deepwater
program's short-term future -- Atkinson said he believes that either
the Navy or another government agency pressured Verio to take Cryptome offline.
"I'm 99 percent sure that it would have been the Navy that got
Cryptome taken offline. They've raised the biggest stink politically
and they may have the most to lose out of anyone if Deepwater casts
doubts on the DDX program," Atkinson said. "The contractors could
have been involved in the takedown, as they said that the contents of
my testimony were classified, but they don't have oversight as the
originating authority and I don't know why the ISP would listen to them."
Atkinson said that he and Young also noticed that contractors and
various government entities were viewing the documents heavily on
Cryptome in the immediate hours after they were first posted.
In a statement published on April 19, Congressman James L. Oberstar
(D-Minn.), the chairman of the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure, cited "serious management failings in contract
execution and oversight among all the parties involved in Deepwater,"
and thanked Atkinson by name for his contribution to the proceedings.
Committee media officials declined to comment on Cryptome's shutdown,
but noted that all the documents hosted on the site were entered into
the public domain during the Congressional hearings.
For now, Young said Cryptome will remain on Network Solutions'
systems as long as it is welcome to be there. Officials with the
Herndon, Va.-based ISP said they have no problem with the site as
long as its content doesn't violate any laws or company policies.
If trouble should arise with the host, Young said he would simply
move on to another large U.S.-based ISP in an unofficial test of the
companies' respective tolerances.
In the next several weeks, Young and Atkinson plan to post another
series of telling documents gathered by the security expert during
the investigation of Deepwater.
"We had two or three offers from people who said that they wanted to
host the site, but we want to use our case to test ISPs. It's better
to find out more about these companies and their policies than it is
to find someone who wants to protect us," Young said. "I'm actually
surprised that it took eight years of this kind of thing for us to
finally get booted."
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