The Italian collective Austistici/Inventati had their servers seized in 2004. Then, for a year NGO’s activists and other socially undesirable ‘free thinkers’ had their traffic snooped by the Italian filth. It was all done to combat crime terrorism drug trafficking double parking etc etc: all the usual dire threats to humanity that justify the removal of traditional rights of liberty.
Their ISP, Aruba, appears to have actively deceived their client by pretending that the server had gone down due to a power outage. ‘Power outage’ was clearly a slip of the tongue, all along they meant to say ‘the cops wanted to root your box, bitch’. Presumably they couldn’t say this is in any fashion a non geek would understand, so the nearest translation was ‘power failure’. Innocent enough I’m sure we’d all agree.
Presumably the Italian legislation has some RIPA style ‘though shalt keep our secrets’ provision preventing them form informing their clients. Nonetheless there is a subtle distinction between sullen coerced compliance, and giving the police a blow job. Were I advising the ISP I would simply have said ‘if asked don’t answer, but certainly don’t lie - if your client draws an inference that is not your concern’Â. Such an answer may have allowed the client to become suspicious and to have discovered the spying earlier. Not what the cops would want but the right thing.
A further general lesson is that if cops seize your servers and you are aware of it, which was not the case here, then examine the system to find the backdoor. If it is found you should publicise it to embarrass them. Finally, wipe the drives and reinstall the system before continuing on to the barricades.
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