[IP] more on fbi plans new Net-tapping push
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 8, 2006 11:17:46 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] FBI plans new Net-tapping push
Doest his meant hat if I use a generic Linux box to write some
routing or NAT software I must include an FBI module? Is it illegal
for Cisco to provide open source LinkSys boxes?
Given the attitude that the unexamined conversation is treason
shouldn’t the FBI be looking into all calls made using walkie-
talkies, between cordless phones, between extension phones? Are
corporate PBXes exempted?
Good thing that Bombay is now called Mumbai – otherwise think of all
the conversations that would be flagged as dangerous.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 08:00
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IP] FBI plans new Net-tapping push
Begin forwarded message:
From: Richard Forno <rforno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 8, 2006 2:22:38 AM EDT
To: Blaster <rforno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FBI plans new Net-tapping push
FBI plans new Net-tapping push
By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/FBI+plans+new+Net-tapping+push/
2100-1028_3-6091942.html
Story last modified Fri Jul 07 18:55:01 PDT 2006
The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet
service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance
and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for
eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.
FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting
last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be
introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two
sources familiar with the meeting.
The draft bill would place the FBI’s Net-surveillance push on solid
legal footing. At the moment, it’s ensnared in a legal challenge from
universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal
Communications Commission’s broadband surveillance directives exceed
what Congress has authorized.
The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists
who have turned to technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or
VoIP.
“The complexity and variety of communications technologies have
dramatically increased in recent years, and the lawful intercept
capabilities of the federal, state and local law enforcement
community have been under continual stress, and in many cases have
decreased or become impossible,” according to a summary accompanying
the draft bill.
Complicating the political outlook for the legislation is an ongoing
debate over allegedly illegal surveillance by the National Security
Administration—punctuated by several lawsuits challenging it on
constitutional grounds and an unrelated proposal to force Internet
service providers to record what Americans are doing online. One
source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive
nature of last Friday’s meeting, said the FBI viewed this as a top
congressional priority for 2007.
Breaking the legislation down
The 27-page proposed CALEA amendments seen by CNET News.com would:
· Require any manufacturer of “routing” and “addressing”
hardware to offer upgrades or other “modifications” that are needed
to support Internet wiretapping. Current law does require that of
telephone switch manufacturers—but not makers of routers and network
address translation hardware like Cisco Systems and 2Wire.
· Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements to
“commercial” Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC
deems it to be in the “public interest.” That would likely sweep in
services such as in- game chats offered by Microsoft’s Xbox 360
gaming system as well.
· Force Internet service providers to sift through their
customers’ communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls.
(The language requires companies to adhere to “processing or
filtering methods or procedures applied by a law enforcement
agency.”) That means police could simply ask broadband providers like
AT&T, Comcast or Verizon for wiretap info—instead of having to figure
out what VoIP service was being used.
· Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice
Department must publish a public “notice of the actual number of
communications interceptions” every year. That notice currently also
must disclose the “maximum capacity” required to accommodate all of
the legally authorized taps that government agencies will “conduct
and use simultaneously.”
Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and
member of a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal would
“have a negative impact on Internet users’ privacy.”
“People expect their information to be private unless the government
meets certain legal standards,” Harper said. “Right now the
Department of Justice is pushing the wrong way on all this.”
Neither the FBI nor DeWine’s office responded to a request for
comment Friday afternoon.
DeWine has relatively low approval ratings--47 percent, according to
SurveyUSA.com—and is enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic
challenger to retain his Senate seat in the November elections.
DeWine is a member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with
overseeing electronic privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a
former prosecutor in Ohio.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., decided 2-1
last month to uphold the FCC’s extension of CALEA to broadband
providers, and it’s not clear what will happen next with the lawsuit.
Judge Harry Edwards wrote in his dissent that the majority’s logic
gave the FCC “unlimited authority to regulate every
telecommunications service that might conceivably be used to assist
law enforcement.”
The organizations behind the lawsuit say Congress never intended
CALEA to force broadband providers—and networks at corporations and
universities—to build in central surveillance hubs for the police.
The list of organizations includes Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, the
American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of
American Universities and the American Library Association.
If the FBI’s legislation becomes law, it would derail the lawsuit
because there would no longer be any question that Congress intended
CALEA to apply to the Internet.
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