IP: FBI To Require ISPs To Reconfigure E-mail Systems (fwd)

[Perry E. Metzger]

[From Dave Farber's "Interesting People" mailing list. Anyone have any
confirmation of the story?]

> National Journal's Technology Daily
>
> PM Edition
>
> October 16, 2001
>
> HEADLINE: PRIVACY: FBI To Require ISPs To Reconfigure E-mail Systems
>
> PHOENIX -- The FBI is in the process of finalizing technical
> guidelines that would require all Internet service providers (ISPS) to
> reconfigure their e-mail systems so they could be more easily
> accessible to law enforcers. The move, to be completed over the next
> two months, would cause ISPs to act as phone companies do to comply
> with a 1994 digital-wiretapping law. "They are in the process of
> developing a very detailed set of standards for how to make packet
> data" available to the FBI, said Stewart Baker, an attorney at Steptoe
> & Johnson who was formerly the chief counsel to the National Security
> Agency (NSA).
>
> The proposal is not a part of the anti-terrorism legislation currently
> before Congress because the agency is expected to argue that the
> Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) already
> grants it the authority to impose the requirement, Baker said. He
> added that some ISPs already meet the requirements.
>
> Baker, who frequently represents Internet companies being asked to
> conduct electronic surveillance for the FBI, made the revelation
> Tuesday in a panel discussion at the Agenda 2002 conference here on
> how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are likely to affect the technology
> industry and civil liberties. He elaborated on the plan in an
> interview.
>
> Such a stance could result in considerable cost to many ISPs, and it
> would constitute a reversal of previous government policy, which held
> that ISPs are not subject to CALEA's requirements. But Baker also said
> "it has been a long-term goal of the FBI and is not just a reaction to
> Sept. 11."
>
> Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Application Foundation and
> a founder of Lotus Development, also spoke on the panel. Kapor also
> started the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and has been a vocal
> advocate of Internet privacy. EFF played a significant role in the
> CALEA debate, and divisions over whether to support that law led to a
> split of the organization.
>
> "Under the cover of people's outrage [over the terrorist attacks] and
> desire for revenge, lots of things that have been defeated before have
> been brought back in [to the anti-terrorism legislation] without a
> demonstration that the lack of appropriate law is a problem," Kapor
> said in an interview. But on the whole, Kapor and Baker shared more
> common ground on the acceptability of new electronic surveillance than
> they had in the past, with both expressing the view that now is a time
> for calm reconsideration of positions rather than butting horns over
> the details of how civil liberties would be curtailed by an
> anti-terrorism bill.
>
> "I find myself more in the middle than I used to because my identity
> in life is not as a civil liberties advocate," Kapor said. "Part is
> being an American and a world citizen." Baker said it was entirely
> appropriate for the FBI to conduct far more surveillance.
>
> "What has changed [since Sept. 11] is the view of the technology
> community," Baker said. "I used to get calls like, 'How can I beat the
> NSA?'" said Baker. "Now, people call and say, 'I have this great idea
> that would help NSA,' or, 'I want to go volunteer and do outreach on
> behalf of the FBI or NSA.' There is a real change of people's view
> about who the bad guys are."

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com
--
"Ask not what your country can force other people to do for you..."



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