[Infowarrior] - Comcast Is Hiring an Internet Snoop for the Feds

[Richard Forno]

Comcast Is Hiring an Internet Snoop for the Feds
By Noah Shachtman

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/comcast-wants-d.html

Wanna tap e-mail, voice and Web traffic for the government? Well,  
here's your chance. Comcast, the country's second-largest Internet  
provider, is looking for an engineer to handle "reconnaissance" and  
"analysis" of "subscriber intelligence" for the company's "National  
Security Operations."

Day-to-day tasks, the company says in an online job listing, will  
include "deploy[ing], installing] and remov[ing] strategic and  
tactical data intercept equipment on a nationwide basis to meet  
Comcast and Government lawful intercept needs." The person in this  
"intercept engineering" position will help collect and process traffic  
on the company's "CDV [Comcast Digital Voice], HSI [High Speed  
Internet] and Video" services.

Since May 2007, all Internet providers have been required to install  
gear for easy wiretapping under the Communications Assistance for Law  
Enforcement Act, or CALEA.  Anyone taking this position, Comcast says,  
will have to be "knowledgeable with ... standards such as CALEA." (The  
company is all too happy to "intercept its customers’ communications"  
for a fee of a thousand dollars, Secrecy News revealed last year.)

But the person in this job won't just be snooping for the government.  
He or she will also "perfor[m] diagnosis on data, voice, and video  
services to detect and respond to fraudulent activity such as theft of  
service and speed enhancement."

For the better part of a year, there have been rumors that the company  
kept some sort of bandwidth limit on its customers. Finally, in  
February, Comcast admitted that it had been "clamping down on  
subcribers' file-sharing as a way of keeping overall net traffic up.

The job requires a "B.S. Degree in Information Systems Technology, MIS  
or related field or equivalent years of progressive experience and  
self-study," a minimum of two years of policy or security engineering  
experience," as well as the "ability to carry and coordinate delivery  
of a 50-pound server to support deployments in local market."

If that's too much for you, don't worry. The company is also looking  
for an administrative assistant in its National Security Operations  
office. In that position, you'll be able to handle "sensitive incoming  
Legal subpoenas and other material. Some of this material may be  
'Secret/Top Secret' and be classified under applicable Federal Law."