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Date: 2000-09-07
Geheimniskram um Carnivore
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Das "Fleischfresser" genannte Überwachungs-Setup des FBI wird
wohl nicht so bald evaluiert werden. Die Bedingungen des
Justizministeriums, was danach öffentlich werden darf und was nicht
sind so restriktiv, dass renommierte Unis wie MIT oder Purdue
bereits abgesagt haben.
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relayed by
Eike Rathke <er@stardivision.de>
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'Carnivore' unlikely to be validated
By Will Rodger, USA TODAY
Five groups of researchers have bowed out of the competition to
evaluate the so-called Carnivore Internet surveillance system. And
that likely will dash Justice Department hopes that a major university
would validate its controversial eavesdropping device, participants
said Tuesday.
Attorney General Janet Reno seemed confident Aug. 10 that one of
several then-unnamed schools would take up the challenge of
verifying that Carnivore, when properly used, would not violate the civil
rights of individuals subject to its workings.
But rules for the review published Aug. 24 have encountered stiff
opposition from researchers approached for the job by the Justice
Department. The Department, they say now, is effectively asking for
a meaningless examination of a device whose potential for abuse
may well outstrip its usefulness.
"This is not a request for an independent report," says Jeffrey
Schiller, a computer network manager at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology who was asked to work on the review. "They want a
rubber stamp."
"I don't know of any university interested in this review," says
Thomas Perrine, a computer researcher at the San Diego
Supercomputing Center at the University of California at San Diego.
"If there are any others out there we haven't been able to find them."
...
The controversy surrounding the carnivore audit springs from several
issues. Among other things, the Justice Department says:
- Universities and any other contractors must agree not to publish
anything the government deems sensitive. -Researchers may
examine only those matters the government wants examined. -
Teams must agree to clear all personnel working on the evaluation
with the government.
....
Researchers counter that an open review that all experts can
examine will likely yield more bug repairs and improvements than
problems.
Adds James Dempsey, senior staff counsel to the Center for
Democracy and Technology: "Some people might learn how to evade
it. But that's the price of the assurance that this thing isn't some
vacuum cleaner they're going to use to grab everything."
MIT, Purdue University, Dartmouth College, the University of
Michigan and the Supercomputing Center at the University of
California at San Diego have all turned down overtures from the
Justice Department or signaled their unwillingness to participate
...
Researchers say even a cursory examination of known facts about
Carnivore worries them. And that is what makes who does the review
so important.
Unlike a recorded human voice, which can be easily shown to be
authentic or fake, there is no built-in authentication process for email.
PC clocks can be changed to produce fraudulent time stamps, text
messages can be altered undetectably and others fabricated or
deleted entirely. A "black box" placed at an Internet provider and
open only to FBI agents produces more problems than many experts
are comfortable with.
...
"There are a lot of different skills necessary in doing this review,"
says Steve Bellovin, an AT&T researcher who helped put together a
review team for the San Diego Supercomputing Center. "The totality
of how it's used, it's all the other surrounding systems that surround
this thing that lead to other risks."
Furthermore, AT&T's Bellovin warns, getting all the email traffic on a
suspect is exceedingly hard. Email can take strange hops and not
land at the place police expect it to, harming a prosecution as easily
as a defense.
...
Justice's Colgate counters the FBI already has laws it must follow to
intercept e-mail. "What we don't want is a debate over the
government's inherent authority to conduct electronic surveillance. If
researchers find there are issues that have to be addressed, we can
do that," he says.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center's Perrine says few lawyers
can take on a body of email that incriminates a defendant. That
much is apparent, he says, from the fact that virtually no hacking
cases ever go to trial.
...
Full Text
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndstue06.htm
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edited by Harkank
published on: 2000-09-07
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