Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Prestigious Law Firm Raises NSA Bar with Verizon IP Networking


It's a good thing Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge and Rice, PLLC has nothing to hide. They just announced their high tech deal with Verizon Business. Their press release stated:

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, one of the largest and most technologically advanced business law firms in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, will be able to better communicate and collaborate both internally and with clients, using advanced Internet protocol (IP) networking and collaboration services provided by Verizon Business.

Under terms of a new three-year contract, Verizon Business is providing Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Womble Carlyle with an MPLS-based Private IP network, effectively linking the law firm's 11 offices and more than 1,300 employees, including 530 attorneys.

The new Womble Carlyle network is based on Verizon Business' Private IP service, one of the company's fastest-growing offerings. It replaces several regional networks previously used by Womble Carlyle and, for the first time, provides the firm with a standardized wide area infrastructure.

The converged network architecture delivers improved quality and ease of management, and supports office-to-office and office-to-client collaboration via audio and video conferencing. By eliminating Womble Carlyle's need to manage and maintain multiple voice, video and data networks, the new network enables the firm to operate more efficiently and better serve clients.

Do any of those clients have an expectation of confidentiality? If so, they might want to consider Verizon's past cooperation with the National Security Agency. A website lists the latest NSA controlled/affiliated IP ranges.

Verizon Internet Services Inc. [NSA-shared IP ranges; also used by Verizon for routine residential/business IP allocation]Reston VA US
68.236.0.0 - 68.239.255.255
70.16.0.0 - 70.23.255.255
70.104.0.0 - 70.111.255.255
71.96.0.0 – 71.127.255.255
71.160.0.0 - 71.191.255.255
71.240.0.0 - 71.255.255.255
72.64.0.0 - 72.95.255.255
130.81.0.0 – 130.81.255.255
141.149.0.0 - 141.158.255.255
ns2.verizon.net [151.203.0.86]
ns4.verizon.net [151.203.0.87]
ns1.bellatlantic.net [199.45.32.40]
ns2.bellatlantic.net [199.45.32.41]

My guess is Womble Carlyle negotiated to stay outside the NSA's purview, but how is a client to know? Welcome to the USA, now an endemic spying society.