FC: FBI mounting PR campaign to defend Carnivore system

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[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.

[...]

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