Researchers refuse Carnivore review By Will Rodger, USATODAY.com 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." <snip> http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti490.htm
