posted July 24, 2000 08:40 PM            

Just watched an interesting piece on the The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Monday, 7/24 7:00 PM CST re: the FBI's Carnivore email "hacking" application. Thought you bros might appreciate some "awareness."

Note: I was taking quit notes so apelling and specifics are "as is".

Participants: FBI Rep, Larry Parkinson, FBI General Counsel and Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center (also a moderator).

Topic: FBI Carnivore, a software application used in concert with ISP participation to "filter select email" for analysis by the FBI.

Usage: In production for ~18 months, used approx. 25 times total, 16 times this fiscal year, 10 for "national security" cases, and 6 times for "criminal" cases (i.e. for "us."). The FBI rep. noted "...good cooperation by ISPs..." (important point there). The FBI seeks out ISP assistance to "collect information on the sender and/or the receiver" (the "who") then, with a court order can take it a step further and "...seek the content..." (the "what") of the parties involved (the "snooping" requires no court order, just content extraction).

The counter response was reasonable (the guy was pretty good) and stated "...it is capable of collecting more than intended..." and "...the use is much higher than reported..."

No reference was made to encryption services (Hushmail, and other) or the impact.