Politech mailing list archives
FC: FBI mounting PR campaign to defend Carnivore system
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 16:24:50 -0400
[I should have sent this out a week ago when I wrote it, but since Carnivore is still interesting, here it is. I'm finally catching up on sending politech messages out -- been in NYC, then DC, and now briefly in SF for a speaking engagement in Palo Alto on Saturday. --Declan]
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37590,00.html It's Time for Carnivore Spin by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com) 5:20 p.m. Jul. 14, 2000 PDT WASHINGTON -- FBI agents are quietly visiting Capitol Hill to deflect criticism of the agency's Carnivore surveillance system. On Friday morning, FBI representatives briefed aides from the House of Representatives on the technical details of Carnivore, a Windows 2000 computer that uses custom software to eavesdrop on people who are the target of an investigation. Although Attorney General Janet Reno ordered an investigation on Thursday, privacy groups are irate, and a congressional oversight hearing is scheduled, it turns out that Carnivore is fairly straightforward. "It plugs into a hub in passive listening mode. All the traffic in the hub goes through this thing," says an aide who attended the closed-door briefing. "As (communications) comes in, the (software) looks through the traffic and if it looks like the filter criteria, it goes to a Jaz drive." The FBI agent conducting the investigation logs into the Carnivore box not through the Internet, but via a modem hooked up to a standard phone line, said the source, who asked not to be identified. "This is something that's not being used very widely -- in only about a half-dozen cases," an FBI spokesman said, adding that he was "not at liberty" to disclose where Carnivore had been installed. [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: FBI mounting PR campaign to defend Carnivore system Declan McCullagh (Jul 21)