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On Sun, 16 Jul 2000, Lucky Green wrote:
> Only time will tell. And it may be long time, indeed. The FBI is some 5
> years behind in some of their FOIA responses.
That renders the FOIA almost totally useless in cases like this...
> Still, I disclosure of the Carnivore code is not the most interesting issue
> here. Carnivore represents just one of many indicators of a much larger
> global trend. While the implementation details vary from country to country,
> law enforcement is moving to active monitoring of Internet communications
> closer to the targets of interest, but not at the target level. In
> particular, the "black box" monitoring device installed at the ISP level
> appears to be in the process of becoming the implementation of choice.
> Pioneered by Russia, this design has rapidly been adopted by the UK, and now
> is used in the US.
Sure. But I'd still like to get my hands on one of these boxes, and see
exactly what they do. I am convinced that the potential abilities of a
Carnivore box are far greater than the legal abilities.
> There are sound engineering reasons why this design is so popular: unlike a
> wiretap order to copy all the emails of a particular interception target,
> the black box does not require per-message cooperation from the ISP's staff.
Right, because it can simply gobble up *everything*, with the simple
reassurance that the box will not monitor innocent commnications.
> This is of importance, since this cooperation cannot and is not assumed.
In the US, it should be. That's why we have a legal system.
The ISP should have the ability to know exactly how its network is being
used.
> The lesson here is simple: encrypt your emails and other private
> communications.
Tell that to my ex-wife. You and I have been using encryption for
years... but until we get a decent, AOL-style S/MIME or PGP implementation
that is totally transparent to the user, you might as well say this:
The lesson here is simple: don't say in email or any other communication
that which you wish to be private.
- -MW-
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