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Privacy Invasion By Any Other Name
Steve writes: "CNET News.com reports that the FBI has changed the name of Carnivore to DCS1000. The DCS stands for 'Digital Collection System.' According to the article, 'A spokesman for the FBI denied that the name change stemmed from worries that the name Carnivore made the system sound like a predatory device made to invade people's privacy. But the Illinois Institute of Technology, which last fall issued an analysis of the system at the request of the Justice Department, recommended that the name be changed for just that reason, according to an IIT analyst.'
The article does not say which of the IITRI recommendations were incorporated other than the name change." The FDA requires prominent, nominally truthful labels on food, but apparently not all TLA agencies feel quite the same way. I thought "Carnivore" was a beautiful flash of truth in labelling, so this move is a shame.
According to the article, 'A spokesman for the FBI denied that the name change stemmed from worries that the name Carnivore made the system sound like a predatory device made to invade people's privacy.
Wake up America and realize how much you have to lose. People willing to give up freedom in exchange for security deserve neither, and neither you will get.
The government derives its power from the people. And right now the vast majority of people are too apathetic to care about something as 'trivial' as their own privacy.
But then, I'm just preaching to the choir.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
What the botched ATM phone tap can't do - and which Car^H^H^HBarney^H^H^H^H^H^HDCS-1000 can - is log all the traffic for future analysis.
If you "botch" the ATM switch tap, you still need humans to go through the data you illegally gathered. If you "botch" the filter parameters with DCS-1000, you just file the disk away for long-term storage.
>I personally think that everyone (not just the FBI) should have the power to tap any communication line at any time.
Actually, that's not as laughable as it seems. While I'd prefer "no tapping", a world in which "everyone could tap" would at least be a level playing field. Sure, the marketroids could snoop on you, but you could snoop right back and publish lists of the offending IPs.
As currently configured (120M removable storage), DCS-1000 isn't a major threat. Swap that 120M removable storage for a 60G IDE drive, and you've got something much more interesting.
How long before a copy of Carnivore leaks and gets mirrored for public consumption? I mean, presumably it has not only been used by several FBI agents, it also had to be coded. Somewhere, there must be a geek with some source code secreted on some media or another--I find it hard to believe that no one swiped a copy, or conveniently forgot to erase a copy he installed at home for debugging. Somewhere, somehow, it'll show up. The only question is when.
/. a while back, and got a lot of press about a year ago, but I can't find the link to the software publisher's site any more). Where are good leaks and whistleblowers when you need them.
Of course, I've wondered the same about other LEA and TLA net spying tools. All the other LEA used stuff, such as mirroring utils like Encase, are readily available if you know where to look. But I have yet to see any of the cool stuff, like Carnivore and the software that's being sold to police departments for remote computer break-ins (was mentioned on
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."--Tacitus, *The Annals*
Depending on where you go in the country a hogie is a grinder is a submarine. But it is all still lunch!(A very good lunch too - ham and Swiss- sooo goood!) Just because the name changes doesnt mean the actual substance changes.
Just because you change somthing's name doesn't mean you change the thing. If I copy a file and rename it, what really changes? It still has all the same information but a few couple of bits say B and not A.
The FBI is still gonna use Carnivore/DCS1000 for the same purposes(hopefully all legal) but in the end, the system is still the same. Do they think that the public is that stupid that changing its name to an acronym will make people forget that it exists? I hope not!
-Life is a Journey, --Not a Guided Tour! ---Trust me, I've already looked for the guide book.
Just a bit of clarification on this, I go to the Illinois Institute of Technology, Carnivore was reviewed by IITRI (IIT Research Institute) a wierd building that has more government and big business tie-ins than you could shake a stick at. IITRI is not IIT. The two are seperate entities, IITRI is just affiliated with IIT and is based on the IIT campus, on the south side of Chicago, a block away from where I now sit.
you were scooped by yourself :)2 7&mode=thread
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/09/22432
Someone should have had this idea before:
and of course...
Je t'aime Stéphanie
He told me all about the hoops agents must leap through to get a wiretap, and how limited it was once obtained. For example, on a phone tap, as soon as it becomes clear a conversation is NOT about the crime being investigated, the agent must turn off the sound and stop taping. He can then periodically spot-check the conversation to see if it is related to the investigation.
He also told me how hard it was to get decent technical people to work for the FBI, especially since as non-manager, non-gun-carrying agents, technical people tend to be second tier employees. He seemed to think that things like Carnivore offered the only way to counteract the advantage suspects could get by using the internet and computers. As if to prove his own point about technical naivete, he seem puzzled when I asked why the FBI couldn't just subpoena email as needed from ISPs. This would seem analogous to a wiretap, which presumably requires cooperation from the phone company.
I suspect many of the rank and file law enforcement support things like Carnivore just because it makes their job easier. They know they would not abuse the system. And if they did bend the rules a bit, it would be only to catch someone who was really, really bad....
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
FBI Agent Dave: tweaking in the back of DCS1000 with a soldering iron
DCS1000: Daisy, daisy, give me your email, do . . .
Here's a snippet from a recent chat on AOL's Br1ttn3y Sp34rz chat room.
This translates into:
You've got to love the FBI. I really wish them well.