Re: "I Write Mass Surveillance Software"

[Michael Holstein <michael.holstein@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The IXP2800 can do line-rate 10gbps
> http://download.intel.com/design/network/ProdBrf/27905403.pdf

Here's one more link that explains the IXP series architecture

http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/homes/luddy/PROCESSORS/IXP2850.pdf

(basically, all the OP on Rededit was saying, was he's the guy that 
writes the microengine code)  .. the processors themselves aren't 
capable of realtime brute-force decryption ... but they are the sort of 
thing that can look for signatures/keywords/etc in a stream and act upon 
it at wire-speed.

As for breaking encryption, this would be a task better suited for a 
large farm of purpose-programmed FPGAs, since I'm not aware of any 
commercially-produced ASIC that does this (although the NSA does list 
jobs for "semiconductor fabrication", so I'm sure they're in that game).

IIRC the Russians had purpose-built their own ASICs to break DES when it 
was en-vouge .. I'm sure our side of the pond actively does the same.

Sneakier mice, better mousetraps.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
while().

Cheers,

Michael Holstein
Cleveland State University