Darwin's Theories Blog

New Theories for a New Time

Bell Canada supporting illegal spying?

2008-08-11
The illegal spying by the U.S. Government, aided and abetted by lawbreaking telecom companies, is fairly well known. But what you might not have known is that Bell Canada quite often routes packets via the USA.  I can think of no good technological reason for this, since we have very good interconnection facilities here in Toronto, and am thus - at the risk of overstepping Hanlon's Razor - going on the assumption that they think they're doing their part in helping out Bush's fake little war. Here's an example where packets get sent from downtown Toronto, to Chicago (where they presumably travel over lines owned by AT&T and are therefore subject to interception), then back again into Toronto:
ian:14$ traceroute xxxxx
 
traceroute to xxxxx (24.138.xxx.xxx), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets 
 1  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  0.361 ms  0.316 ms  0.283 ms 
 2  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  2.27 ms  2.100 ms  1.977 ms 
 3  dis20-toronto12_lo0_Dis.net.bell.ca (64.230.194.178)  9.836 ms  10.551 ms  9.596 ms 
 4  64.230.233.77 (64.230.233.77)  10.222 ms  8.874 ms  10.153 ms 
 5  core3-toronto12_GE14-0-2.net.bell.ca (206.108.107.121)  9.626 ms  11.696 ms  9.726 ms 
 6  newcore3-toronto12_POS0-12-1-0_core (64.230.158.61)  10.581 ms  10.846 ms  9.735 ms 
 7  core1-chicago23_pos13-0-0.net.bell.ca (64.230.147.18)  22.675 ms  19.409 ms  20.34 ms 
 8  bx6-chicago23_POS0-3-0-0.net.bell.ca (64.230.186.202)  24.439 ms  23.528 ms  26.465 ms 
 9  te1-1.ccr02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.11.29)  22.487 ms  20.622 ms  19.804 ms 10  te2-4.mpd01.yyz02.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.214)  34.84 ms  33.387 ms  34.704 ms
 11  switchworks-technologies.demearc.cogentco.com (38.102.194.42)  35.808 ms  34.475 ms  34.545 ms 
12  H202.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.202)  36.140 ms  36.188 ms  36.186 ms 
13  H253.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.253)  36.868 ms  38.400 ms  41.815 ms 
14  H230.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.230)  41.454 ms  38.965 ms  40.634 ms 
15  * * * 
16  * *^C
Here's another Toronto-area example: 
ian:3$ traceroute xxx
traceroute to xxx, 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

 1  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  0.552 ms  0.499 ms  0.457 ms
 2  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 4.869 ms  8.874 ms  5.504 ms
 3  172.31.254.37 (172.31.254.37)  17.995 ms  21.199 ms  13.49 ms
 4  fe0-0.xcr02.wightman.ca (216.110.227.210)  11.773 ms  12.615 ms  13.207 ms
 5  142.46.4.9 (142.46.4.9)  15.829 ms  15.570 ms  15.29 ms
 6  142.46.0.13 (142.46.0.13)  25.827 ms  17.279 ms  17.450 ms
 7  if-1-150.mcore3.MTT-Montreal.teleglobe.net (216.6.111.13)  25.55 ms  26.918 ms  119.648 ms
 8  if-3-0.mcore4.MTT-Montreal.teleglobe.net (216.6.114.2)  25.482 ms  25.823 ms  25.702 ms
 9  Pos-channel1.mcore3.NYY-NewYork.teleglobe.net (216.6.81.17)  33.20 ms  33.186 ms  33.136 ms
10  if-1-0.core2.NTO-NewYork.teleglobe.net (216.6.97.41)  33.808 ms  52.528 ms  32.840 ms
11  Vlan13.icore1.NTO-NewYork.teleglobe.net (216.6.97.6)  43.623 ms  39.39 ms  35.623 ms
12  * te9-3.mpd01.jfk05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.12.93)  45.821 ms  48.320 ms
13  vl3495.ccr04.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.6.45)  52.540 ms te9-2.mpd03.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.209)  45.996 ms te9-2.ccr04.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.0.53)  45.525 ms
14  te2-2.ccr02.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.242)  64.888 ms  51.85 ms  52.362 ms
15  te1-4.mpd01.yyz02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.25.102)  68.386 ms te7-2.mpd01.yyz02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.25.106)  62.897 ms  63.215 ms
 16  switchworks-technologies.demearc.cogentco.com (38.102.194.42)  65.748 ms  67.234 ms  72.970 ms
 17  * * H202.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.202)  64.231 ms
 18  H253.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.253)  58.419 ms  54.689 ms  57.279 ms
 19  H230.C185.tor.switchworks.net (204.15.185.230)  60.864 ms  57.823 ms  54.692 ms
 20  * * *
 21  * * *

It could be that the names with "chicago" and "new york" are fake, to fool people like me. But the transit times double to Chicago and nearly so to New York, so I doubt it.

Or, maybe it's just that Bell and Teleglobe (which used to be owned by Bell) can't find any other way to get from Toronto to Toronto. But I doubt that, too.

Tags
security spying