Child Porn Probe Uses Live Internet Wiretap

rrkap writes "The Sacramento Bee is reporting that Jason Heath Morgan, a suspect in a child porn case was subject to the first 'live internet wiretap.' According to the story, 'Technology used in the surveillance is very similar to a phone tap. Agents attached a monitoring device to Morgan's phone line, then tracked his Internet activity from remote computers.' This packet sniffing was authorized by the PROTECT Act - officially Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act, which authorizes such tapping of internet connections."

Comments

Bad laws -- rule of thumb

[Compact Dick]

More thought went into the acronym than the law itself.

So...

[tokachu(k)]

...they fired up Ettercap on a switch and watched the packets?

Network administrators in corporations have been doing that for many years now (at least where I work), although they tend to use it to debug and track down virii.