IP: Fw: [FiB FORUM] Anti-Terror Tools Include High-Tech

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
From: "Virginia" <rainesco at earthlink.net>
Subject: IP: Fw: [FiB FORUM] Anti-Terror Tools Include High-Tech
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 17:02:31 -0800
Sender: owner-ignition-point at theveryfew.net
Reply-To: "Virginia" <rainesco at earthlink.net>




>     "The FBI and police in Boston and Miami, Fla., are using powerful
>     software called ``dTective'' from Ocean Systems Co. of Burtonsville,
>     Md., to trace financial transactions linked to last month's terrorist
>     attacks against New York and Washington."
>
>
> Date sent:      Mon, 29 Oct 2001 05:20:58 +0100
> To:             fibforum at fib.se
> From:           Kenneth Rasmusson <rasken at kulturservern.se>
> Subject:        [FiB FORUM] Anti-Terror Tools Include High-Tech
> Send reply to:  fibforum at fib.se

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20011028/pl/attacks_tech_tools_1.html

Sunday October 28 2:02 PM ET
Anti-Terror Tools Include High-Tech
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's pursuit of terrorists is relying heavily on
sophisticated technology, from software that automatically translates foreign
communications on the Internet to a device that secretly captures every
keystroke a suspect makes on his computer.

President Bush signed new anti-terrorism legislation Friday that enabled law
enforcement to rely on these tools more reely, and the Justice Department
immediately sent instructions to prosecutors.

``A new era in America's fight against terrorism ...  is about to begin,''
Attorney General John Ashcroft pledged.

Over the weekend, top Justice lawyers in Washington e-mailed the most
cyber-savvy federal prosecutors around the country, describing in more than 30
printed pages how they can use the government's high-tech tools in new ways.

The e-mail, reviewed by The Associated Press, outlines new guidelines, for
example, for operating the FBI's Carnivore computers, which capture suspects'
e-mails in ways that require only perfunctory approval by a judge.

Another section says that in rare cases police can now secretly search a
person's house without telling the homeowner for up to three months.

During one of these so-called ``sneak and peek'' searches, authorities would
secretly implant a hidden ``key-logger'' device.  The FBI acknowledged making
five such secret searches before it installed its snooping device in a recent
gambling investigation.

The key-logger, hidden inside a computer, secretly records everything a
suspect
types on it.  The device lets authorities capture passwords to unscramble data
files in otherwise-unbreakable codes.

Bush said this weekend that new anti-terrorism laws were needed because modern
terrorists ``operate by highly sophisticated methods and technologies.'' The
U.S.  government has its own share of gee-whiz gadgetry - enough for a
season of
``Mission: Impossible.''

The CIA is rushing to teach its computers how to better translate Arabic
under a
young program it calls ``Fluent.'' Custom-written software scours foreign Web
sites and displays information in English back to analysts.  The program
already
understands at least nine languages, including Russian, French and Japanese.

Another CIA breakthrough is ``Oasis,'' technology that listens to worldwide
television and radio broadcasts and transcribes detailed reports for analysts.

Oasis currently misinterprets about one in every five words and has difficulty
recognizing colloquial Arabic, but the system is improving, said Larry
Fairchild, head of the CIA's year-old Office of Advanced Information
Technology.

In a demonstration earlier this year at CIA headquarters, Fairchild showed
early
plans for ``CIA Live!,'' which lets CIA experts send instant messages and
collaborate on reports and maps across the agency's ultra-secure computer
networks.

The FBI and police in Boston and Miami, Fla., are using powerful software
called
``dTective'' from Ocean Systems Co.  of Burtonsville, Md., to trace financial
transactions linked to last month's terrorist attacks against New York and
Washington.

The software, which runs on highly specialized, $25,000 equipment from Avid
Technology Inc., dramatically improves grainy video from surveillance
cameras at
banks or automated teller machines.  It can enhance images, for example, that
were nearly unusable because of bad lighting.

``Sometimes we're amazed at the quality of the image,'' said Dorothy Stout, a
top specialist at Veridian Corp.  in Oakton, Va., who teaches police how to
use
the video system.  Other tools help her rebuild videotapes that have been
burned, cut into pieces or thrown into a lake.  ``It's quite time-consuming,''
she said.

At U.S.  computer-crime labs, including a cutting-edge Defense Department
facility near Baltimore, technicians rebuild smashed disk drives from
computers.

They also use sophisticated commercial software, called ``Encase,'' which can
recover deleted computer files and search for incriminating documents on a
seized computer.

Experts are hard at work in the FBI's headquarters in Washington, using Encase
and other tools to examine computers seized after the Sept.  11 attacks.
------------
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http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

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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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