[privacy] FBI Received Unauthorized E-Mail Access

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via The New York Times.

[snip]

A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an
entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more —
instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret
intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according
to an internal report of the 2006 episode.

F.B.I. officials blamed an “apparent miscommunication” with the unnamed
Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small
e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately
destroyed, officials said.

Bureau officials noticed a “surge” in the e-mail activity they were
monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering
equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.

The episode is an unusual example of what has become a regular if
little-noticed occurrence, as American officials have expanded their
technological tools: government officials, or the private companies they
rely on for surveillance operations, sometimes foul up their instructions
about what they can and cannot collect.

The problem has received no discussion as part of the fierce debate in
Congress about whether to expand the government’s wiretapping authorities
and give legal immunity to private telecommunications companies that have
helped in those operations.

[snip]

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/washington/17fisa.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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