more on FBI plans new Net-tapping push

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: July 8, 2006 11:44:16 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] FBI plans new Net-tapping push


Dave,

Data retention laws.  Purpose-built voice and data wiretapping
capabilities in communications gear.  A sharp salute to the masters
of the Black Chamber, with terrorism and child abuse the rhetorical
keys to creating the pervasive surveillance society.

But there's a piece missing.  Crypto controls of course!

Despite their fundamental impracticality, laws prohibiting,
controlling, or penalizing the use of "untappable" crypto will be
increasingly enticing to the powers-that-be.  For of what use is all
that extremely expensive wiretapping capability if you can't
interpret the damned bits?

Such control laws would of course trigger a vast escalation in the
crypto "arms race" -- with ever more emphasis on steganographic and
other message obscuring techniques.  Innocents will have their
personal and business privacy eviscerated, while the truly evil will
plunge deeper from view, with knee-jerk reactions pulling our basic
liberties down the rathole as well.

After all, even the road to "1984" was paved with good intentions.

Indeed, "He loved Big Brother."

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com

 - - -

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: July 8, 2006 2:22:38 AM EDT
> To: Blaster <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: FBI plans new Net-tapping push
>
> FBI plans new Net-tapping push
>
> By Declan McCullagh
> http://news.com.com/FBI+plans+new+Net-tapping+push/
> 2100-1028_3-6091942.html
>
> Story last modified Fri Jul 07 18:55:01 PDT 2006
>
> The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet
> service
> providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force
> makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping,  
> CNET
> News.com has learned.
>
> FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting  
> last
> Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be
> introduced by
> Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources
> familiar with
> the meeting.
>
> The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid
> legal
> footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from
> universities
> and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications
> Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress  
> has
> authorized.
>
> The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance  
> for Law
> Enforcement Act is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists who  
> have
> turned to technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.
>
> "The complexity and variety of communications technologies have
> dramatically
> increased in recent years, and the lawful intercept capabilities of  
> the
> federal, state and local law enforcement community have been under
> continual
> stress, and in many cases have decreased or become impossible,"
> according to
> a summary accompanying the draft bill.
>
> Complicating the political outlook for the legislation is an ongoing
> debate
> over allegedly illegal surveillance by the National Security
> Administration--punctuated by several lawsuits challenging it on
> constitutional grounds and an unrelated proposal to force Internet
> service
> providers to record what Americans are doing online. One source, who
> asked
> not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's
> meeting, said the FBI viewed this as a top congressional priority for
> 2007.
>
> Breaking the legislation down
> The 27-page proposed CALEA amendments seen by CNET News.com would:
>
> • Require any manufacturer of "routing" and "addressing" hardware to
> offer
> upgrades or other "modifications" that are needed to support Internet
> wiretapping. Current law does require that of telephone switch
> manufacturers--but not makers of routers and network address  
> translation
> hardware like Cisco Systems and 2Wire.
>
> • Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements to "commercial"
> Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to
> be in
> the "public interest." That would likely sweep in services such as in-
> game
> chats offered by Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system as well.
>
> • Force Internet service providers to sift through their customers'
> communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls. (The  
> language
> requires companies to adhere to "processing or filtering methods or
> procedures applied by a law enforcement agency.") That means police
> could
> simply ask broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast or Verizon for  
> wiretap
> info--instead of having to figure out what VoIP service was being  
> used.
>
> • Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice
> Department must
> publish a public "notice of the actual number of communications
> interceptions" every year. That notice currently also must disclose  
> the
> "maximum capacity" required to accommodate all of the legally  
> authorized
> taps that government agencies will "conduct and use simultaneously."
>
> Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and
> member of
> a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal would "have a
> negative
> impact on Internet users' privacy."
>
> "People expect their information to be private unless the government
> meets
> certain legal standards," Harper said. "Right now the Department of
> Justice
> is pushing the wrong way on all this."
>
> Neither the FBI nor DeWine's office responded to a request for comment
> Friday afternoon.
>
> DeWine has relatively low approval ratings--47 percent, according to
> SurveyUSA.com--and is enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic
> challenger to retain his Senate seat in the November elections.
> DeWine is a
> member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing
> electronic
> privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a former prosecutor in
> Ohio.
>
> A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., decided 2-1
> last
> month to uphold the FCC's extension of CALEA to broadband  
> providers, and
> it's not clear what will happen next with the lawsuit. Judge Harry
> Edwards
> wrote in his dissent that the majority's logic gave the FCC "unlimited
> authority to regulate every telecommunications service that might
> conceivably be used to assist law enforcement."
>
> The organizations behind the lawsuit say Congress never intended
> CALEA to
> force broadband providers--and networks at corporations and
> universities--to
> build in central surveillance hubs for the police. The list of
> organizations
> includes Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, the American Association of
> Community
> Colleges, the Association of American Universities and the American
> Library
> Association.
>
> If the FBI's legislation becomes law, it would derail the lawsuit
> because
> there would no longer be any question that Congress intended CALEA to
> apply
> to the Internet.


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