FC: FBI reportedly wants to concentrate traffic, tap entire Internet

[R. A. Hettinga]

On a geodesic network, no single node can switch all the information.

The old Texas A&M Aggie joke about the pig and the monkey comes to mind here...

Cheers,
RAH

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http://www.interactiveweek.com/print_article/0,3668,a%253D16678,00.asp



October 18, 2001
Beyond Carnivore: FBI Eyes Packet Taps

By Max Smetannikov

Expect the FBI to expand its Internet wiretapping program, says a source
familiar with the plan.

Stewart Baker, a partner with law firm Steptoe & Johnson, is a former
general counsel to the National Security Agency. He says the FBI has spent
the last two years developing a new surveillance architecture that would
concentrate Internet traffic in several key locations where all packets,
not just e-mail, could be wiretapped. It is now planning to begin
implementing this architecture using the powers it has under existing
wiretapping laws.

The FBI has acknowledged a program called Carnivore, which sniffs e-mail
messages, but the new program is more extensive, Baker says.

"The FBI has been gradually developing a set of guidelines, standards -
call it what you will - a list of what law enforcement wants from packet
data communications systems," Baker said. "And they are in the process of
unveiling that over the next few months to ISPs and router manufacturers
and the like."

ISPs, Web hosters, vendors and other firms handling critical Internet
infrastructure should expect the FBI trying to schedule meetings to deliver
the details of their offering, and show the document containing the
technical specifications, Baker said. He indicated that details of what
this new surveillance architecture should look like are not clear. It is
also possible the FBI has retained some well-known data infrastructure
consulting firms to develop its new technology.

The new architecture is different from Carnivore because it would likely
ask for certain types of data communications to be centralized, he said.

"The goal might be to get companies that use packet data to have those
packets go to one place for purposes of wiretap and other intercept
capabilities," Baker said. "It's clear they [the Bureau] have decided that
in the next year or so they are going to make a big push on packet data and
they are going to use whatever leverage they can to get people to cooperate
and to build a set of packet data systems that are more wiretap friendly
than the ones we have today."

The FBI spokesman overseeing Carnivore and other wiretapping issues didn't
immediately return calls seeking comments.

Whatever the new initiative ends up looking like, the Internet service
provider community could be more likely to cooperate, shaken up by Sept.
11, said industry executives. But no one has heard of the FBI going beyond
Carnivore at this point.

"The FBI are trying to get Carnivore with a lot more ISPs," said Patrick
Sweeney, president and chief executive of ServerVault, a Web hosting firm
specializing in secure hosting.

Reportedly, the FBI is trying to use sections of Title 18, the wiretapping
law, to extend its eavesdropping coverage to e-mail, Sweeney said. While he
was not familiar with the initiative Baker described, Sweeney said Bureau's
interest in tracking data communications is not shocking, and might go
beyond the FBI.

"There are so many agencies that are working on procedures where they can
make sure than entire comprehensive wireless and wireline tapping can be
put into place if need be," he said.




Copyright (c) 2001 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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