IP: Re: Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:47:42 -0500
>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>From: Barry Steinhardt <Barrys@aclu.org>
>Subject: Re: IP: Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System
>
>Dave,
>
>Below is the ACLU's initial statement on the "Independent" review of 
>Carnivore. I thought the list members might be interested in it.
>
>We will soon be carefully analyzing the details of the report and 
>submitting our comments.
>
>Barry Steinhardt
>
>
>--The American Civil Liberties Union today greeted with skepticism but 
>little surprise preliminary reports on a new FBI Internet surveillance 
>tool, saying that a biased review team guaranteed a pat on the head to the 
>system known as Carnivore.
>"What surprises me is not that the review team is telling reporters that 
>they gave a thumbs-up to Carnivore, but that they expect anyone outside of 
>the government to take this report seriously," said Barry Steinhardt, 
>Associate Director of the ACLU.
>The report, which will not be released to the public and the media until 5 
>p.m. today, is part of a review process grudgingly agreed to by the 
>Justice Department to examine the technical capabilities of the system.
>"This report is, at best, a fuzzy snapshot of Carnivore, and it will be 
>obsolete in two months when the FBI comes out with the next version of 
>Carnivore," Steinhardt said.
>Despite the review team's assurances in news stories today that Carnivore 
>does not "overcollect" evidence, documents obtained through a Freedom of 
>Information Act (FOIA) request by the ACLU clearly state that Carnivore 
>could "reliably capture and archive all unfiltered traffic to the internal 
>hard drive."
>Steinhardt noted that the review panel from the Illinois Institute of 
>Technology apparently was not allowed to look the bulk of the cases where 
>Carnivore was used because of "national security" concerns, and that the 
>team was not asked to look into the assertion by Internet Service 
>Providers that they are capable of providing court-ordered information to 
>the government without using Carnivore.
>The Carnivore system -- essentially a computer running specialized 
>software -- is attached to an Internet Service Provider's network and 
>searches through all of its customers' electronic messages (including 
>e-mail, web addresses and instant messages) looking for the messages of a 
>person suspected of a crime.
>Most of the nation's prestigious academic computer departments either 
>declined to review the system or withdrew their applications after 
>objecting to constraints the Justice Department placed on the review, 
>Steinhardt noted, adding that many of the experts selected to review 
>Carnivore have extensive ties to federal law enforcement agencies and the 
>White House.
>Dozens of politicians from across the political spectrum have called on 
>Attorney General Janet Reno to suspend the use of Carnivore until Congress 
>can determine its legality. The ACLU said it will ask the new Attorney 
>General to do so when she or he takes office early next year.
>
>
>
>At 12:02 AM 11/22/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>>>The document is now up on the DOJ website -- 
>>>http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/publications/carniv_entry.htm is the direct 
>>>URL, or you can go to usdoj.gov and look under "hot topics" or "new on site".
>>
>>
>>
>>For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/
>
>
>
>
>
>Barry Steinhardt
>Barrys@aclu.org
>Associate Director
>American Civil Liberties Union
>125 Broad St. New York, NY 10004
>212 549 2508 (v) 212 549 2656 (f)



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/