By Josh Goebel
One company to rule them all
One company to find them;
One company to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them.
The Internet Kill Switch;
With Global
Wiretapping Capability?
Recently run any whois queries on Google? No? How about Facebook? MSN, or Hotmail? Yahoo? You might be surprised, comparing the results.
Nice, innit? See the “Last Updated” part also.
The brand-protecting, anti-piracy company MarkMonitor Inc. has had all these DNS names under its control for several months now.
They also control the Wikimedia name services, even though that doesn’t show up on the Wikimedia.org whois record. There are many others. Apple.com falls under their jurisdiction, as does ubuntu.com. Nokia.com? Yep, under MarkMonitor. See a pattern here?
MarkMonitor also is a trusted Certificate Authority; they have, in essence, the means to fabricate safe-looking SSL connections for you, to whichever host they want. Your browser will not sound any warnings of possible man-in-the-middle attacks.
MarkMonitor is a company that can own most people’s “Internet” in minutes. It now controls all three top free e-mail providers directly, and I suppose it’s safe to say, most currently active social media sites too.
See for yourself. Whois yahoo.com, whois google.com, whois gmail.com, whois facebook.com, whois fbcdn.com, whois hotmail.com, whois msn.com… the list seems endless.
How’d all this happen?
This company has acquired complete access to monitor, eavesdrop, censor and fake any user of these popular Internet services in about one year (2011). In almost complete silence. For several of the sites, it also provides “firewall proxy” services, which means it is actually paid to intercept all communications. In and out.
The situation reminds me of Senator Joseph Lieberman’s 2010 initiative to create an “Internet kill switch” for the U.S.
The government only needs to control this one company, and most social media, most free e-mail, most search engines will be under its control. Not to mention most operating systems, for both computers and mobile devices.
Not only inside U.S., but globally. One company to rule them all.
I, for one, would like to ask; WTF is going on? How did these guys, this relatively small domain-hogging and pirate-chasing company, get the resources to simply acquire the DNS records of all the most popular Internet services? How can this be so totally ignored by the media, and even privacy advocates? Even conspiracy theorists seem to be completely ignoring the situation.
Secure communication is an illusion.
Only one company to rule them all? As if all this doesn’t sound bad enough, the problem is far more widespread. MarkMonitor could easily act as a global “kill switch” for the sites under its rule.
MarkMonitor is a “brand-protecting” company. Traditionally its business has been reserving domains to protect brands. You buy its service, it makes sure that nobody else can have “mybrandsucks.com”.
Also, they’re an anti-piracy outfit. Their entire business is based on protecting IP.
Just saying, someone should probably question them and their customers. Why does Google, who always “do things themselves”, externalise these vital parts of its network?
How come all the competing phone and OS vendors, who sue each other all the time, suddenly trust this one company?
And then there’s all those competing social media companies, who practically thrive on what others call “IP theft”, including their users sharing text, images, music, videos and links?
Big questions. Defy common sense. Need answers.
The MarkMonitor web site : https://www.markmonitor.com/
Source
(Published under U.S. Copyright Fair Use Clause of 1976, which allows for the reproduction of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary, criticism and education).
Author Bio
Josh Goebel is the creator of Pastie. He also dabbles in Ruby, Rails, and other geek stuff.
May 16, 2012 @ 14:59:30
This is typical… Notice that all businesses, Corporations, Foundations, trusts and or Government agencies are top down pyramid systems? There’s a reason for this. Soon there will be one Corporation for food, one for energy, one for entertainment (insert Propaganda), one for governance etc. all under one central control… GET IT! The Pyramid is their symbol. They use it as a total game plan for all they do… WAKE UP! Wake up now or your children and your children’s children will be slaves forever!
May 15, 2012 @ 03:27:33
One Whore of BaBa’alYAHan, One Re-Legion, On Pagan Demoniac god, One Rainbow U.N. Rothschild global Banksta Gangsta Currency, One Global Governance, One World Communist Slave Plantation; The NEW WORLD ORDER of Satanic, Luciferian Mo Lochian pagan Warship! PRAY for The FATHER to Intervene on Our behalf?
May 14, 2012 @ 15:02:39
http://lauren.vortex.com/
Lauren Weinstein
Anyone interested in more information regarding Internet topics, privacy, and other issues relating to technology and society, including radio and television broadcast and press representatives working on particular shows or stories, or who are in need of background information, are invited to contact Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of PFIR – People For Internet Responsibility, co-founder and moderator of NNSquad – Network Neutrality Squad — and the founder of the PRIVACY Forum — directly for interviews and/or information. He created the PRIVACY Forum in 1992, and has been involved with Internet and other technology issues for over 40 years, including at the first site on the ARPANET (the ancestor of the Internet), which was located at UCLA. Lauren is also the founder of the new Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance – GCTIP.
Lauren is quoted as an expert on the above issues by a wide range of newspaper and magazine articles, and participates in numerous local and network radio and television news programs, talk shows, and other venues where these issues are under discussion.
http://lauren.vortex.com/
May 13, 2012 @ 23:38:58
this sounds like one of those NSA/CIA cutout ompanies to me
May 12, 2012 @ 05:26:06
Louie C- BOYCOTT is the real answer to bringing these huge corporations down, uncluding the banks, voting system (no point doing something that does the complete opposite) and eventually the crooks in Governments.
We need a plan of action, I am sure some very snart activists could work it out.
May 11, 2012 @ 21:13:42
Thank you, Josh Goebel. As you learn more about this, please keep us posted.
May 11, 2012 @ 21:08:42
It’s absolutely TRUE!!!!!!!!!!
May 11, 2012 @ 20:30:22
BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, and then BOYCOTT SOME MORE. What would happen should everyone cancel their accounts with any and all of these corporations? Sure would interesting to find out.
May 11, 2012 @ 20:16:51
one tip- toe step at a time…this is how they do it, all part of the NWO control system, people have be come so conditioned not to think for them selves, they are giving up on there right to be free, with out even thinking about it.
May 11, 2012 @ 19:07:49