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IIT To Review Carnivore
sconeu writes: "Fox News is reporting that the Illinois Institute of Technology will review Carnivore. Fox further reports that 'The Justice Department said in a written statement that it received 11 proposals from various organizations, including the University of California--Davis, and the National Software Testing Laboratory.'" Representatives from a law school (
Chicago-Kent College of Law, not Kent State as previously stated; thanks to corprew for the correction -- tl) will be looking at it as well, and it's slated to start in December.
First of all, I attend IIT, so I can clear some stuff up about what is going on.
IITRI is affiliated and also owned by the school. Anyone who has ever been to Comiskey Park in Chicago has seen a big tall ominous building at 35th and state. That's the main IITRI thing. Last year when the government was testing the foam for bioweapons at airports, they tested it on live anthrax there. It should be noted that with 8 blocks to a mile in Chicago, that puts IIT around 4 miles from downtown chicago. One of IITRI's biggest clients is the US government. There are dozens of IITRI labs around the country.
I've had extensive dealings with the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Some of their faculty are very good about legal issues. Other assume because they wrote a paper about cyberspace a couple of years ago they know everthing about it. Then again, it might just be a personal issue with me and the dean.
This is unusal for our institution. The most prominent IIT research that I know of relating to computers is Garbage Collection and is being done by Morris Chang. There is also some AI research being done. But not a whole lot else.
The law school (chicago-kent) is pretty distant from the main campus, and they don't do much with actual computer stuff there. So it's going to be a legalistic investigation, which is probably what this means.
To be honest, I'm kinda excited about this, but I wouldn't trust my own school to do it.
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
I went to IIT for a year before I escaped. It's an odd little school...kind of like a campus attached to a giant defense research project. Lessee...fun facts/rumors/etc (you pick 'em!) about IIT: :D
- The IITRI research building on the main campus (well, the main one, the one that's above ground) is the also the tallest building on campus. And...it's entirely bulletproof. Why is this, you ask? Because the entire campus (being located a few miles directly south of The Loop) is smack dab in the middle of some of the most interesting slums/ghettos in the midwest - and the denizens of the housing project towers (yes, towers - they're big-ass buildings) kept taking shots at the researchers through the windows. *giggle*
- There is at least one entire building underground. You normally can't see this (the roof is just ground with grass on it) but in the winter, the snow likes to melt on top of it - and only there.
- The entire campus is connected by fun underground tunnels, from the dorms to the tower. Most of the fun ones have been closed off...and for some reason, it's really hard to get a blueprint of 'em (I tried).
- An unusually large portion of the student body consists of Army, Navy, Chair Force and Marine ROTC scholarship holders (how I got there) - when I was there, there were about 500 ROTC students, which was about 35% of the student body population
- The undergrad physics department is both unusually small and has an unusually large amount of toys for such a small department. Then again, being as closely associated with the collider up there as they are, not too surprising.
- The southern limb of the L goes literally DOWN THE MIDDLE of the campus. About 800 feet from the dorms. If you've ever seen the L (or el, if you wish), or more specifically, *heard* the L, you'd laugh your ass off just as I did the first time "experiencing" a passthrough while outdoors. Thank god my room was on the other side of the dorm complex.
- IIT has one of the most advanced high-speed wind tunnels on the face of the planet.
- Cafe Edelstein. If you've taken undergrad physics, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you're still going to class after the first 3 classes, that is. Hmm, wonder if he's still there/alive.
- It's got some of the weirdest buildings you'll ever see. That's because it used to be (well, still is in some circles) a really high-end architectural school, and Mies Van der Roah (sp?) designed most of the (older) buildings on campus. Think "giant boxes made of slate and glass" and you're really close.
- 'Cuz of the L, you're a short walk away from downtown - which is really cool, because Chicago is a great city (in the summer) to hang out in downtown.
- Chicago was the first time I'd seen bridges with potholes on 'em. Like....damn.
- Nearly half the main campus (engineering and suchlike, for the most part) is foreign nationals - mostly Chinese, Indian and Pakistani. You should see some of the fights between the Indians and Pakistani folk...damn...
- Not a single solitary math professor speaks intelligible English. Oh, wait, that's everywhere, nevermind...
So, all things considered...I find this highly amusing. IITRI "examining" this thing is like asking the whore if she likes her pimp while the pimp is standing there listening.
Given enough hydrogen, just about anything is possible.
after carnivore filters the "suspect's data"
it says
"All non-relevant data is purged. Opponents of the system fear Carnivore does not discard private or irrelevant information, leading to potential abuses."
That is such bullshit.
Opponents of Carnivore (A) feel the ENTIRE SYSTEM is unconstitutional and (B) oppose the entirely SECRET NATURE of the system.
The FBI's attempt to isolate the point of controversy to a single point in the system is an obvious attempt to reframe the argument.
People are opposed to the entire thing, not just a part of it. People think abuse can happen at any point in carnivore's operation, not only after filtering is done. (The filtering criteria can be corrupt for example.)
This is so lame.
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
1. It's not IIT that's reviewing it, it's the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI). What? It's "affiliated" with IIT? OK, that's all right then.
2. It's not Kent State (which is in Ohio), but Chicago-Kent College of Law, which is part of IIT in Chicago.
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314-15-9265
How much credibility is this review really going to have? Especially after being turned down by multiple universities, such as MIT, UCSD and UM. The only solution is a justice department independent review, as these universities have suggested. Now by choosing such a no name institution (no offense to IIT), but it is only going to get charged with conspiracy no matter how they respond to the review. I'm glad I'm not in their spot.
-- Moondog
"Jeffrey Schiller, a security expert and network manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the fine print in the DOJ's request for review would place numerous unacceptable restraints on the process, including giving the department the right to read, edit and even junk the report before the public saw it.
In other words, any negative feedback from scientists could be cut out -- while the DOJ would still be able to claim that those scientists, and the universities associated with them, reviewed the software."
So this isn't going to be any kind of review at all. With the knowledge of the DOJ's control over the "review" I don't see how any intelligent soul could believe the final report. If that aint sad enough the university has to pay to review it!
Anyone got a mole inside IIT? I'd love to see the source leaked!
The FBI claims that they need to keep the source closed to prevent criminals from figuring out how to evade Carnivore. But it seems to me that any criminal who is technically skilled enough to do this from reading the actual source code could also figure it out just from the descriptions the FBI has freely given to the press. I mean, either there vast subtleties I'm missing about checking the TO and FROM fields of email messages, or the FBI has something they want to hide.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose that you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
The list of IIT labs reads like a bioweaponary proving ground. Moreover, the list of available jobs further sheds some light that maybe IIT has some defense department ties?
Understanding that MIT and University of California, San Diego "turned down the Justice Department's review request earlier this month, saying they were being asked to rubber stamp the Carnivore system," I am disturbed by a CNN article in which the senior vice president at IITRI and manager of the advanced technology group, said "he was unaware of the concerns expressed by other academic institutions."
I don't buy IIT's statements suggesting that they don't know what Carnivore is. Unfortunately, I doubt most of the populous will care or understand the extent of abuse by Carnivore or an apparent conspiracy with selecting IIT as the reviewer.