In cycling terminology, an echelon is the name given to a group riding in a diagonal fashion to maintain maximum group aerodynamic efficiency against a wind with a side component. Typically, the echelon will rotate so that each rider takes a turn at the front, fighting the wind whilst the rest slipstream (or draft).

A warez release group, made notorious for releasing Sega Dreamcast games. They have released a total of 188 Dreamcast games and will most likely not release any more due to lack of industry support for the Dreamcast, a sixth generation console. They started releasing Dreamcast games on September 4th, 2000. After Kalisto dropped out of the Dreamcast scene, Echelon begun with their first release Flag To Flag CART Racing. Since then, they have been the number one Dreamcast warez group.

After the Dreamcast essentially died, they moved on to the Playstation 2. They started releasing full PS2 DVD games on December 19, 2001. Their first release was Final Fantasy X. As of July 19, 2006 the official count of games they have put out is 223. However, if you look hard enough, you will notice that the actual count is 225. For some reason, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts and Legacy of Kain Defiance, while both recognized as being released by Echelon, are not apart of it's official count.

As like most warez groups, Echelon likes to be rather secretive. Not much is known about them other than they have an IRC channel in EFNeT, appropriately named #echelon.

One rumor about them that has been around since their creation is that they are an off branch of the warez group Kalisto (which is supposedly an off branch of Fairlight, which has also supposedly spawned Project X). While this cannot be proved (or denied), much circumstantial evidence exists that points towards this being true.

Despite being named as one of the groups caught by Operation Fastlink, a warez bust that occurred on April 21, 2004, Echelon has continued to release game ISO's.

The Echelon Electronic Surveillance System

Echelon is the name popularly used to describe the system in which the intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand spy on each other's respective country's citizens. Echelon is the codename for the satellite interception part of the program, but no one really knows what the entire program is called, so I'll just keep calling it Echelon.

History

These countries coordinate their activities according to the UKUSA agreement, which dates back to 1947. The Echelon system dates as far back as 1971. Its capabilities and priorities have expanded exponentially since then. Reports suggest that the system is currently capable of intercepting about 90% of the data sent through the internet, along with phone calls, satellite transmissions, etc.

How does Echelon intercept information?

Echelon intercepts communications through several ground based radio stations in the echelon countries. Some believe that echelon even has its own satellites, used to catch "spillover" data transmissions and relay information to echelon processing centers. It is believed that these centers are in the United States (near Denver), England (Menwith Hill), Australia, and Germany. They also have "sniffer" hardware/software in key internet relay stations, which is how they catch 90% of our emails and porn. It also uses its own search program to scan websites for useful data (listen up 007; this is called google...) In 1982 it was reported that a tapping device (supposedly belonging to echelon) was discovered on the trans-Atlantic fiber optic lines. They most likely have more trans-Atlantic fiber taps yet undiscovered.

That's a lot of data! How do they find whatever they are looking for?

Although no one really quite knows what echelon wants to know, we do have a general idea of how they find it. They use a program called DICTONARY. DICTONARY is a program which cross references certain keywords to narrow down the data. They then use more advanced AI routines to find whatever they are looking for. Due to legal barriers (think: Constitution) it is illegal for a government to spy on its citizens. The national branches of Echelon spies on other nations, then share the data. Example: USA spies on Canadian citizens, Canada spies on US citizens. Then the USA and Canada swap information, therefore getting information on its own citizens. So even though they can't legally spy on you, they can, and most likely are.

Existence of Echelon

The US government refuses to confirm the existence of the echelon system, even though the entire program is headed by America's NSA. Australia's and New Zealand's spy agencies have both admitted to the existence of the Echelon system, but claim it is used for the interests of national security only. The European parliament published a report in late 2001 in which it came to the conclusion that the echelon system existed. They noted that there is a number of satellite bases capable of intercepting civilian communications which are all run by the military. You are not entitled to visit them, which you would be if they were normal communications bases. That operatives and staff from different countries are also stationed at each station is a little weird too. Another clue is that many have normal satellite bases located very close to them - why would you need two stations for one satellite? Testimony of several former intelligence employees and reporters also convinced the European parliament of the existence of echelon.

Protecting yourself from Echelon

Because echelon monitors almost all internet, telephone and fax communications, plaintext is not safe. The only way to protect your communications from being read by the unfriendly folks at the NSA and co is to use unbreakable encryption. A great tool for this is PGP. PGP stands for pretty good privacy. Not only is it pretty good, it's the best. No computer can crack PGP encrypted data, not in anyone's lifetime anyway. It's also free. If it's October 21st and you want to do something besides encrypt all your communications, you can participate in Jam Echelon Day.

sources: The Register (www.theregister.co.uk), Echelon Watch (http://www.echelonwatch.org/), Jam Echelon Day (http://www.cipherwar.com/echelon/)

That's right people, the government is reading your email, looking at your usenet posts, watching your homemade pornography, and an agent is strapped under your car as you read this, checking your mileage.

While I don't deny that there is some sort of electronic surveilance afoot in the world wide web, the notion that governments are reading every email or post you send that contains words on the list is absurd. Have a look at some of them!: texas, captain, nerd, rain (no talking about the weather in the new era!), sex, porno (Something tells me those poor agents are going to have to do alot of reading (especially the new Irvine Welsh book)), fetish, razor, tie-fighter (Yeah, Star Wars geeks pose an enormous threat to international security), beef (perhaps the NSA is made up of militant vegetarians) and fax. That was what I got from a thirty second scan. Understandably, this is just a list from some stupid chainmail (So where the 3C!'s came from I can only guess), but presumably the real list (if there is one) would contain many seemingly obtuse words also.

Perhaps ten years ago a system like Echelon would be feasible, perhaps even useful, but definitely not now. Imagine the staggering amount of emails after September 11, 2001, all of which would have something to do with discussing acts of terrorism. You think they were all read? There is far too much data containing those sort of words to sort through it all.

"But Sasha Gabba Hey!! Surely you realise that it's not a few unrelated words that Echelon picks up on, but rather a string or phrase of suspect ones!" I hear you cry. To you I say; "you fool" or maybe; "come to the Tote on a Tuesday and I'll headbutt you in the face" depending on how work is going. On a mailing list, a message like

Kill the president,

Satellite imagery from Panama is in place to bomb the Sears Tower,

((And so on etc... - About three more paragraphs of 'questionable' text))

Went through in the same amount of time as one saying "hello" - That is, a matter of seconds.

Don't you think that a terrorist organisation would probably try and encrypt their messages, or at least use some kind of non-obvious codewords to signal their intentions to cohorts? The system might serve to dissuade Bratty Yankshit the third and his tryhard anarchist friends from trying to set fire to a McDonalds with firecrackers, but then again, it probably won't.

Sorry people, but for the most part, Big Brother definitely isn't watching. And with that, I will work on my plan to assassinate George W. Bush, mainly because he's a idiot and uses a four wheel drive. If I disappear, please delete this writeup as I will have been disproven.

The Register has posted a list going around the Internet of words that will trigger Echelon; its veracity is unknown, but here it is anyway (Mad props to Stash for doing all the hardlinks):

Rewson, SAFE, Waihopai, INFOSEC, ASPIC, MI6, Information Security, SAI, Information Warfare, IW, IS, Privacy, Information Terrorism, Terrorism Defensive Information, Defense Information Warfare, Offensive Information, Offensive Information Warfare, The Artful Dodger, NAIA, SAPM, ASU, ASTS, National Information Infrastructure, InfoSec, SAO, Reno, Compsec, JICS, Computer Terrorism, Firewalls, Secure Internet Connections, RSP, ISS, JDF, Ermes, Passwords, NAAP, DefCon V, RSO, Hackers, Encryption, ASWS, CUN, CISU, CUSI, M.A.R.E., MARE, UFO, IFO, Pacini, Angela, Espionage, USDOJ, NSA, CIA, S/Key, SSL, FBI, Secret Service, USSS, Defcon, Military, White House, Undercover, NCCS, Mayfly, PGP, SALDV, PEM, resta, RSA, Perl-RSA, MSNBC, bet, AOL, AOL TOS, CIS, CBOT, AIMSX, STARLAN, 3B2, BITNET, SAMU, COSMOS, DATTA, Furbys, E911, FCIC, HTCIA, IACIS, UT/RUS, JANET, ram, JICC, ReMOB, LEETAC, UTU, VNET, BRLO, SADCC, NSLEP, SACLANTCEN, FALN, 877, NAVELEXSYSSECENGCEN, BZ, CANSLO, CBNRC, CIDA, JAVA, rsta, Active X, Compsec 97, RENS, LLC, DERA, JIC, rip, rb, Wu, RDI, Mavricks, BIOL, Meta-hackers, ^?, SADT, Steve Case, Tools, RECCEX, Telex, Aldergrove, OTAN, monarchist, NMIC, NIOG, IDB, MID/KL, NADIS, NMI, SEIDM, BNC, CNCIS, STEEPLEBUSH, RG, BSS, DDIS, mixmaster, BCCI, BRGE, Europol, SARL, Military Intelligence, JICA, Scully, recondo, Flame, Infowar, FRU, Bubba, Freeh, Archives, ISADC, CISSP, Sundevil, jack, Investigation, JOTS, ISACA, NCSA, ASVC, spook words, RRF, 1071, Bugs Bunny, Verisign, Secure, ASIO, Lebed, ICE, NRO, Lexis-Nexis, NSCT, SCIF, FLiR, JIC, bce, Lacrosse, Flashbangs, HRT, IRA, EODG, DIA, USCOI, CID, BOP, FINCEN, FLETC, NIJ, ACC, AFSPC, BMDO, site, SASSTIXS, NAVWAN, NRL, RL, NAVWCWPNS, NSWC, USAFA, AHPCRC, ARPA, SARD, LABLINK, USACIL, SAPT, USCG, NRC, ~, O, NSA/CSS, CDC, DOE, SAAM, FMS, HPCC, NTIS, SEL, USCODE, CISE, SIRC, CIM, ISN, DJC, LLNL, bemd, SGC, UNCPCJ, CFC, SABENA, DREO, CDA, SADRS, DRA, SHAPE, bird dog, SACLANT, BECCA, DCJFTF, HALO, SC, TA SAS, Lander, GSM, T Branch, AST, SAMCOMM, HAHO, FKS, 868, GCHQ, DITSA, SORT, AMEMB, NSG, HIC, EDI, benelux, SAS, SBS, SAW, UDT, EODC, GOE, DOE, SAMF, GEO, JRB, 3P-HV, Masuda, Forte, AT, GIGN, Exon Shell, radint, MB, CQB, TECS, CONUS, CTU, RCMP, GRU, SASR, GSG-9, 22nd SAS, GEOS, EADA, SART, BBE, STEP, Echelon, Dictionary, MD2, MD4, MDA, diwn, 747, ASIC, 777, RDI, 767, MI5, 737, MI6, 757, Kh-11, EODN, SHS, ^X, Shayet-13, SADMS, Spetznaz, Recce, 707, CIO, NOCS, Halcon, NSS, Duress, RAID, Uziel, wojo, Psyops, SASCOM, grom, NSIRL, D-11, DF, ZARK, SERT, VIP, ARC, S.E.T. Team, NSWG, MP5k, SATKA, DREC, DEVGRP, DSD, FDM, GRU, LRTS, SIGDEV, NACSI, MEU/SOC,PSAC, PTT, RFI, ZL31, SIGDASYS, TDM. SUKLO, Schengen, SUSLO, TELINT, fake, TEXTA. ELF, LF, MF, Mafia, JASSM, CALCM, TLAM, Wipeout, GII, SIW, MEII, C2W, Burns, Tomlinson, Ufologico Nazionale, Centro, CICAP, MIR, Belknap, Tac, rebels, BLU-97 A/B, 007, nowhere.ch, bronze, Rubin, Arnett, BLU, SIGS, VHF, Recon, peapod, PA598D28, Spall, dort, 50MZ, 11Emc Choe, SATCOMA, UHF, The Hague, SHF, ASIO, SASP, WANK, Colonel, domestic disruption, 5ESS, smuggle, Z-200, 15kg, DUVDEVAN, RFX, nitrate, OIR, Pretoria, M-14, enigma, Bletchley Park, Clandestine, NSO, nkvd, argus, afsatcom, CQB, NVD, Counter Terrorism Security, Enemy of the State, SARA, Rapid Reaction, OFC3IP, Corporate Security, 192.47.242.7, Baldwin, Wilma, ie.org, cospo.osis.gov, Police, Dateline, Tyrell, KMI, 1ee, Pod, 9705 Samford Road, 20755-6000, sniper, PPS, ASIS, ASLET, TSCM, Security Consulting, M-x spook, Z-150T, Steak Knife, High Security, Security Evaluation, Electronic Surveillance, MI-17, ISR, NSAS, Counterterrorism, real, spies, IWO, eavesdropping, debugging, CCSS, interception, COCOT, NACSI, rhost, rhosts, ASO, SETA, Amherst, Broadside, Capricorn, NAVCM, Gamma, Gorizont, Guppy, NSS, rita, ISSO, submiss, ASDIC, .tc, 2EME REP, FID, 7NL SBS, tekka, captain, 226, .45, nonac, .li, Tony Poe, MJ-12, JASON, Society, Hmong, Majic, evil, zipgun, tax, bootleg, warez, TRV, ERV, rednoise, mindwar, nailbomb, VLF, ULF, Paperclip, Chatter, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, Bluebird, MKNAOMI, White Yankee, MKSEARCH, 355 ML, Adriatic, Goldman, Ionosphere, Mole, Keyhole, NABS, Kilderkin, Artichoke, Badger, Emerson, Tzvrif, SDIS, T2S2, STTC, DNR, NADDIS, NFLIS, CFD, BLU-114/B, quarter, Cornflower, Daisy, Egret, Iris, JSOTF, Hollyhock, Jasmine, Juile, Vinnell, B.D.M., Sphinx, Stephanie, Reflection, Spoke, Talent, Trump, FX, FXR, IMF, POCSAG, rusers, Covert Video, Intiso, r00t, lock picking, Beyond Hope, LASINT, csystems, .tm, passwd, 2600 Magazine, JUWTF, Competitor, EO, Chan, Pathfinders, SEAL Team 3, JTF, Nash, ISSAA, B61-11, Alouette, executive, Event Security, Mace, Cap-Stun, stakeout, ninja, ASIS, ISA, EOD, Oscor, Tarawa, COSMOS-2224, COSTIND, hit word, hitword, Hitwords, Regli, VBS, Leuken-Baden, number key, Zimmerwald, DDPS, GRS, AGT. AMME, ANDVT, Type I, Type II, VFCT, VGPL, WHCA, WSA, WSP, WWABNCP, ZNI1, FSK, FTS2000, GOSIP, GOTS, SACS STU-III, PRF, PMSP, PCMT, I&A, JRSC, ITSDN, Keyer, KG-84C, KWT-46, KWR-46, KY-75, KYV-5, LHR, PARKHILL, LDMX, LEASAT, SNS, SVN, TACSAT, TRANSEC, DONCAF, EAM, DSCS, DSNET1, DSNET2, DSNET3, ECCM, EIP, EKMS, EKMC, DDN, DDP, Merlin, NTT, SL-1, Rolm, TIE, Tie-fighter, PBX, SLI, NTT, MSCJ, MIT, 69, RIT, Time, MSEE, Cable & Wireless, CSE, SUW, J2, Embassy, ETA, Porno, Fax, finks, Fax encryption, white noise, Fernspah, MYK, GAFE, forcast, import, rain, tiger, buzzer, N9, pink noise, CRA, M.P.R.I., top secret, Mossberg, 50BMG, Macintosh Security, Macintosh Internet Security, OC3, Macintosh Firewalls, Unix Security, VIP Protection, SIG, sweep, Medco, TRD, TDR, Z, sweeping, SURSAT, 5926, TELINT, Audiotel, Harvard, 1080H, SWS, Asset, Satellite imagery, force,