Just passing along info...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I cut and pasted this from another board I signed on, hope this isn't a violation of terms here. Just want to educate a few folks here, don't be so nervous about surveillance, it's always on, just a matter of when they decide to move, they DON'T surveil with marked cars. Long post sorry but skim it and try to sleep tonite.
Posted: Today at 12:35am
Originally posted by muffdvr
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/03/...ex.html?hpt=C1
How long before they start to track us and our surfing habits?
REPLY FROM ME Tsingtao/sum ting wong
Ever hear of carnivore?
google it with tracking in the search criteria, this has been around a long time. It is used for alot of intel, pedophiles being a HVT.
Peace,
sum ting wong
IP Logged
sum ting wong
Member
Joined: Today
Location: Afghanistan
Online Status: Online
Posts: 3
Posted: Today at 12:40am
For those too lazy to search or lacking computer savvy, LOL
I give you an eye opener (Long story but just skim it and it should make your balls crawl up inside)
Carnivore and Echelon were apparently developed and implemented in the 1990s, long before 9/11/2001 and long before the current debate over wiretaps and domestic surveillance.
Much of the information on this page is obsolete by now, and the technology that was used has most likely been replaced by something more effective, with another name. But it is interesting to know that the federal government has been working on the idea of monitoring every electronic communication -- nationwide if not worldwide -- for at least 20 years.
Subsections:
Einstein
Carnivore
Tempest
Echelon
Carnivore / Echelon Trigger Words
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Einstein
Einstein is a more recent development than either Carnivore or Echelon, but like the other two, Einstein has stayed out of the mainstream press. Among other things, the system will monitor visits from Americans — and foreigners — visiting ***** Web sites.
I think I can tell already where Einstein is headed: it will make it more difficult -- if not hazardous -- for someone to compile a list like this, just to explore and document the width and depth of the overgrown federal government.
Einstein sounds a lot like a program called Snort, which is available at no cost. So whatever amount Uncle Sam spent on Einstein was probably a complete waste of money.
FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity. The FBI on Wednesday [4/23/2008] called for new legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity." The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a broad "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks as well. The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, "whether it be .mil, *****, .com — whichever network you're talking about."
Einstein is the network monitoring tool used by the United States federal government's Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Einstein is used to automatically monitor and analyze Internet traffic when it moves in and out of federal computer networks, filtering packets at the perimeter. … Participating agencies have used Einstein in network gateways since 2004. In conjunction with the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative launch in 2008, DHS mandated that all federal agencies must use Einstein.
Congress worries that ***** monitoring will spy on Americans. A new Bush administration plan to capture and analyze traffic on all federal government networks in real time is generating privacy worries from congressional Democrats and Republicans alike. At a hearing convened here Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, politicians directed pointed questions to Department of Homeland Security officials about their plans to expand an existing "intrusion detection" system known as Einstein.
Doubletalk alert:
Visiting a web site is not an intrusion.
Einstein keeps an eye on agency networks. DHS officials named the program Einstein because they think their monitoring program is smart. Since 2004, Einstein has monitored participating agencies' network gateways for traffic patterns that indicate the presence of computer worms or other unwanted traffic. By collecting traffic information summaries at agency gateways, Einstein gives US-CERT analysts and participating agencies a big-picture view of bad activity on federal networks.
Einstein and U.S. cybersecurity. At a hearing last week on Capitol Hill, officials faced close, skeptical questioning about the program, an intrusion detection system that will automatically monitor and analyze Internet traffic into and out of federal computer networks in real time — allowing officials at the Department of Homeland Security to scan for anomalies that might represent hackers or other intruders trying to gain access or steal data.
House legislators rip Bush's Cyber Initiative plan. The initiative is a long-range plan to upgrade the security of the federal government's networks and comprises a number of separate proposals, most notably an overhaul and expansion of the government's intrusion detection system, known as Einstein. Currently, Einstein is simply a passive traffic-monitoring system that records basic data such as the originating IP address of a packet, its size and where the packet came from and where it is headed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carnivore
Carnivore is an e-mail wiretap system being developed and used by the FBI to read messages being circulated amongst suspected criminals and terrorists... and everybody else. There is a great deal of concern being expressed nationwide, and not just by privacy fanatics, because it is likely that such eavesdropping occurs before there is any other evidence that the affected individuals have done anything illegal. It would be much less of an issue were it not for a little technicality called the Fourth Amendment. The FBI is relying on the public (and the mainstream news media) to ignore charges such as the ACLU's statement that Carnivore represents "an unprec****ted power grab that threatens the privacy of all Americans."
There is good news about Carnivore, however. Recently I attended a meeting of local computer security experts (legitimate professionals, really, not the guys at the 2600 meeting) and the moderator of the program offered his opinion that "Carnivore is not very effective."
Don't be fooled: DCS1000 is still a "Carnivore" at heart. After a flurry of controversy over the FBI's Carnivore system for intercepting e-mail, the feds have moved promptly to address concerns -- by renaming it "DCS1000".
DCS1000: The Device Formerly Known as Carnivore: Despite some reports indicating that the name is an acronym for "data collection system," an FBI spokesperson told Reuters that it "doesn't stand for anything."
Carnivore changes name, enters witness protection program: Carnivore, the FBI's controversial Internet communications monitoring system, is undergoing a makeover. First, the FBI is going to pull out its teeth, and re-christen Carnivore DCS1000, which, in our esteem, is just a little too close to HAL2000…
FBI axes Carnivore, eats investment. The FBI has abandoned its custom-built Internet surveillance technology, dubbed Carnivore, and is now using commercial software to eavesdrop on computer network traffic during investigations of suspected criminals, terrorists and spies. In addition, it's asking Internet service providers to conducting wiretaps on targeted customers, when necessary. … The FBI didn't disclose how much it had spent on Carnivore, but outside experts estimate expenditures at somewhere between $6 illion and $15 million.
Carnivore was an Internet surveillance system developed for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) so that they could monitor the electronic transmissions of criminal suspects. Critics, however, charged that Carnivore did not include appropriate safeguards to prevent misuse and might violate the constitutional rights of the individual. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reported in early 2005 that the FBI had replaced Carnivore with other, unspecified surveillance software from commercial sources. Such software usually includes a packet sniffer.
FBI retires its Carnivore. FBI surveillance experts have put their once-controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance tool out to pasture, preferring instead to use commercial products to eavesdrop on network traffic, according to documents released Friday [1/14/2005].
FBI Abandons Web Surveillance Technology. The FBI has effectively abandoned its custom-built Internet surveillance technology, once known as Carnivore, designed to read e-mails and other online communications among suspected criminals, terrorists and spies, according to bureau oversight reports submitted to Congress.
[That's a misleading headline. The FBI hasn't abandoned their web surveillance technology, they have just changed to another make and model of software.]
Read this: Feds raid orchid-grower's home: George Norris said he believes his troubles may stem from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's use of CARNIVORE, a government system that can tap into computer e-mails. "They showed me page three of a five-page e-mail from several years ago where I was being offered smuggled plants," he said. "They did not show me pages four and five, which were my answer to this fellow, telling him we would not buy any such plants that were undocumented. This was so old that I don't even remember this e-mail.
Editor's Note: Please see the George Norris subsection on this page for more details on this case.
Inside DCSNet, the FBI's Nationwide Eavesdropping Network. The $10 million DCS-3000 client, also known as Red Hook, handles pen-registers and trap-and-traces, a type of surveillance that collects signaling information — primarily the numbers dialed from a telephone — but no communications content. DCS-6000, known as Digital Storm, captures and collects the content of phone calls and text messages for full wiretap orders. A third, classified system, called DCS-5000, is used for wiretaps targeting spies or terrorists.
FBI turns to broad new wiretap method. Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords. … "What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."
FBI's Carnivore-lies may have blown bin Laden inquiry. Fundamental design flaws in the FBI's infamous Carnivore packet sniffer have led to the destruction of evidence related to a suspect possibly involved in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network which had been obtained legally under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant, the watchdog group EPIC has learned.
Carnivore is a surveillance tool for data networks. At the heart of the project is CarnivorePE, a software application that listens to all Internet traffic (email, web surfing, etc.) on a specific local network. Next, CarnivorePE serves this data stream to interfaces called "clients." These clients are designed to animate, diagnose, or interpret the network traffic in various ways. Use CarnivorePE to run Carnivore clients from your own desktop, or use it to make your own clients.
Echelon: The US government has long conducted extensive eavesdropping overseas, as part of the National Security Agency's foreign intelligence collection activities. This foreign surveillance occurs outside the normal limitations of the Constitution. With the globalization of communications, the overseas snooping activities of the US and its allies have attracted renewed attention and concern.
Congress Passes "Roving Wiretaps," Expands Surveillance Authority. Oct 1998, in a closed-door manuever, controversial "roving wiretap" provisions were added to the Intelligence authorization bill and passed by the Congress. Prevoiusly, wiretapping law allowed tapping of a particular person's phones. The new provisions dramatically expanded current authority by allowing taps on any phone used by, or "proximate" to, the person being tapped — no matter whose phone it is. Such a broad law invites abuse. In 1996, the full House of Representatives had rejected these provisions after an open and vigorous debate. But in 1998, behind closed doors, a conference committee added the provisions to the important Intelligence Authorization Conference Report.
Does Technology Threaten Our Privacy, Morality and Freedom of Religious Expression? Two new powerful multi-billion dollar eavesdropping tools originally invented to spy on the Russians have now been turned on the American people. [They're talking about Echelon and Tempest, although Carnivore is also discussed.]
Carnivore page at COTSE dot net, which is apparently a privacy-enhanced email service.
Carnivore, Altivore, Echelon: In terms of privacy concerns as well as raw technological power, Carnivore looks like a toy compared to Echelon. Echelon is almost certainly the world's most sophisticated network monitoring system and, if rumors are to be believed, anyone who feels uncomfortable with the secrecy surrounding Carnivore should feel downright paranoid where Echelon is concerned.
Where Carnivore Lives: The FBI has already employed Carnivore in a number of cases. By law, the details of these investigations have generally not been released publicly. The only ISP positively identified as cooperating with such an investigation, in fact, is Earthlink.
Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System: Carnivore is a software-based Internet Protocol (IP) packet sniffer that can select and record a defined subset of the traffic on the network to which it is attached. Packets can be selected based on IP address, protocol, or, in the case of email, on the user names in the TO and FROM fields. In limited cases, packets can be selected based on their content. Packets can be recorded 'in their entirety (full mode) or recording can be limited to addressing information (pen mode), i.e., IP addresses and usermames.
Why Carnivore Is Bad For You: The FBI can hardly be trusted to conduct their investigations with proper handling and precision, but even if they could, Carnivore/DCS1000 will end up hurting innocent people. The amount of guesswork involved in a sweeping search like the type Carnivore/DCS1000 does insures that many "dead ends" and "bad leads" will be pursued. What this means is that the FBI will inevitably end up investigating (including search, seizure, intimidation, prosecution, etc.) innocent people.
Confounding Carnivore: How to Protect Your Online Privacy. Ever since the FBI confirmed the existence of their Internet wiretapping device — a device which they named Carnivore — cyberprivacy activists have been up in arms. Carnivore promised to be their worst nightmare: a technology that could track and record every email sent, every Web page browsed, every chat room visited.
Carnivore, Altivore, Echelon: Three big names in the world of network monitoring. In terms of privacy concerns as well as raw technological power, Carnivore looks like a toy compared to Echelon. Echelon is almost certainly the world's most sophisticated network monitoring system and, if rumors are to be believed, anyone who feels uncomfortable with the secrecy surrounding Carnivore should feel downright paranoid where Echelon is concerned.
Carnivore, Sniffers, and You: The Carnivore network diagnostic tool (sniffer) may be peeking at your email. This article offers the scoop on the FBI's latest crime-fighting tool.
Sniffer — A Definition: Network sniffers monitor data without altering its content. Sniffers are now commonly used by governments, corporations, by hackers, and by students.
FBI's Carnivore hunts in a pack. Carnivore, the FBI's controversial e-mail snooping program, is part of covert surveillance triad known inside the bureau as the "DragonWare Suite," according to recently declassified documents. The documents also outline how the DragonWare Suite is more than simply an e-mail snooping program: It's capable of reconstructing the Web surfing trail of someone under investigation.
FBI Statement for the Record on the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool
The Backdoor, the Rogue Agent, and the Mishap: the Hidden Dangers of Carnivore. This paper is intended to provide convincing reasons, beyond the 4th Amendment argument, why Carnivore is a law enforcement tool that we all should reject.
The preceding article appears at a web site called Stop Carnivore Now.
Carnivore FAQ (Sample: It is important to note that Carnivore is a passive wiretap. It does not interfere with communication. Some news reports falsely claim that Carnivore interposes itself into the stream, first grabbing data, then passing it along.
The Legal Authorities of the National Security Agency: U.S. Representative Bob Barr asserts, "While Americans remain solidly in support of a strong foreign intelligence gathering capability, they are not willing to do so at the expense of their domestic civil liberties."
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
Carnivore and Reno: Janet Reno's answers to questions about Carnivore in her weekly press conferences at the Justice Department.
Clinton Favors Computer Snooping: The Clinton administration wants to be able to send federal agents armed with search warrants into homes to copy encryption keys and implant secret back doors onto computers.
Congress, Privacy Rights Activists Blast Carnivore: Fears that the FBI is going too far with its technological invasions of communications systems were hardly soothed when Dr. Donald M. Kerr, the director of the FBI's laboratory division revealed what the bureau plans for the future.
FBI Shows Off Carnivore: FBI officials defended Carnivore by telling hand-picked media representatives that the system is necessary "because some smaller ISPs do not have the capability to provide the data that law enforcement needs quickly," the Washington Post reported.
Feds Deny Asking ISPs to Watch E-mails: Last month, the European Union passed a resolution that would require all ISPs to store for up to seven years e-mail message headers, Web-surfing histories, chat logs, pager records, phone and fax connections, passwords, and more. Already, Germany, France, Belgium, and Spain have drafted laws that comply with the directive. Technology experts say the U.S. federal government may try to do the same thing using the vast law enforcement allowances provided under the USA Patriot Act.
Carnivore: Interview with Rep. Bob Barr (R - Ga.): When the FBI launched its latest crime-fighting project, known by the name Carnivore, a lot of people worried that this new system could be dangerous - not for crooks, but for innocent people.
Outside Review of Carnivore Planned: The Justice Department is moving swiftly to get an independent evaluation of the FBI's Carnivore e-mail intercept system, even as the system is denounced by congressional Republicans and civil libertarians as a threat to privacy on the Internet.
Excellent! The Fourth Amendment and Carnivore: The Carnivore system appears to exacerbate the over collection of personal information by collecting more information than it is legally entitled to collect under traditional pen register and trap and trace laws.
Now It's Carnivore 2.0 ... Even 3.0: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now describing its Carnivore software that peeks into e-mail accounts without individual computer users' being aware as just "the tip of the iceberg."
White House Wants Cyber-Snoop Rules: The Clinton-Gore administration will propose legislation putting e-mail surveillance on legal footing akin to phone taps — but leaving the FBI's "Carnivore" spying intact.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Intrusion? "Carnivore" sifts through all online communications, such as e-mail or website traffic looking for illegal activity. The problem is that it collects all communications, legal and illegal, thus violating the privacy of citizens who are just innocently and legally conversing online with family or friends or who happen to be surfing the Net.
More DOJ Delays in Carnivore Investigation
Carnivore FOIA: A Justice Department Joke
EPIC Carnivore FOIA Documents
GOP Wants to Pull Carnivore's Teeth: What has upset so many people who use the Internet to communicate is the new high-tech FBI device — called "Carnivore" because it finds the "meat" of e-mail messages. It enables law enforcement officials to sort through every bit of everybody's e-mail messages to find those of questionable legality.
Testimony of Robert Corn-Revere, April 6, 2000: "I believe it is vital for Congress now to examine the Fourth Amendment implications of electronic surveillance on the Internet and the World Wide Web. As the United States Supreme Court explained in 1997, the Internet is a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide human communication."
Some of the technical aspects of Carnivore: Recent press reports have disclosed the existence of an FBI Internet wiretap device, known as "Carnivore". This is troubling for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is unclear just what the software and hardware does or how it works. In the U.S., there are serious legal restrictions on the use of wiretaps by police agencies. The Supreme Court has consistently held that wiretaps qualify as searches under the Fourth Amendment.
Government Privacy Violators: These days it's hard to find a politician without some plan to impose new privacy regulations on business. The physicians should first try to heal themselves. Our various levels of government have a long and undistinguished record of disrespecting our personal privacy.
Report Says Carnivore Is Tame; Critics Skeptical: The FBI developed Carnivore in 1997 to monitor the activities of suspects who communicate using e-mail, much the way the agency uses wiretaps and pen registers to monitor telephone calls and capture caller information. Privacy advocates have expressed concern the tool is too powerful, too invasive and a potential danger to civil liberties.
Carnivore - E-mail Invasion "I hope that you will research this subject more. Contact your ISP and urge them to refuse to accept Carnivore on their system. It is not a question of whether you have anything to hide. Your right to privacy is at stake. If this is allowed it can only snowball."
Help Kill the Carnivore!: Carnivore is a hardware-software device that the FBI secretly developed at its lab in Quantico, Va. Almost immediately after the existence of this project was disclosed in a July 11 Wall Street Journal article, public outrage began to mount.
Peace,
sum ting wong
(Tsingtao)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I cut and pasted this from another board I signed on, hope this isn't a violation of terms here. Just want to educate a few folks here, don't be so nervous about surveillance, it's always on, just a matter of when they decide to move, they DON'T surveil with marked cars. Long post sorry but skim it and try to sleep tonite.
Posted: Today at 12:35am
Originally posted by muffdvr
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/03/...ex.html?hpt=C1
How long before they start to track us and our surfing habits?
REPLY FROM ME Tsingtao/sum ting wong
Ever hear of carnivore?
google it with tracking in the search criteria, this has been around a long time. It is used for alot of intel, pedophiles being a HVT.
Peace,
sum ting wong
IP Logged
sum ting wong
Member
Joined: Today
Location: Afghanistan
Online Status: Online
Posts: 3
Posted: Today at 12:40am
For those too lazy to search or lacking computer savvy, LOL
I give you an eye opener (Long story but just skim it and it should make your balls crawl up inside)
Carnivore and Echelon were apparently developed and implemented in the 1990s, long before 9/11/2001 and long before the current debate over wiretaps and domestic surveillance.
Much of the information on this page is obsolete by now, and the technology that was used has most likely been replaced by something more effective, with another name. But it is interesting to know that the federal government has been working on the idea of monitoring every electronic communication -- nationwide if not worldwide -- for at least 20 years.
Subsections:
Einstein
Carnivore
Tempest
Echelon
Carnivore / Echelon Trigger Words
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Einstein
Einstein is a more recent development than either Carnivore or Echelon, but like the other two, Einstein has stayed out of the mainstream press. Among other things, the system will monitor visits from Americans — and foreigners — visiting ***** Web sites.
I think I can tell already where Einstein is headed: it will make it more difficult -- if not hazardous -- for someone to compile a list like this, just to explore and document the width and depth of the overgrown federal government.
Einstein sounds a lot like a program called Snort, which is available at no cost. So whatever amount Uncle Sam spent on Einstein was probably a complete waste of money.
FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity. The FBI on Wednesday [4/23/2008] called for new legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity." The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a broad "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks as well. The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, "whether it be .mil, *****, .com — whichever network you're talking about."
Einstein is the network monitoring tool used by the United States federal government's Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Einstein is used to automatically monitor and analyze Internet traffic when it moves in and out of federal computer networks, filtering packets at the perimeter. … Participating agencies have used Einstein in network gateways since 2004. In conjunction with the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative launch in 2008, DHS mandated that all federal agencies must use Einstein.
Congress worries that ***** monitoring will spy on Americans. A new Bush administration plan to capture and analyze traffic on all federal government networks in real time is generating privacy worries from congressional Democrats and Republicans alike. At a hearing convened here Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, politicians directed pointed questions to Department of Homeland Security officials about their plans to expand an existing "intrusion detection" system known as Einstein.
Doubletalk alert:
Visiting a web site is not an intrusion.
Einstein keeps an eye on agency networks. DHS officials named the program Einstein because they think their monitoring program is smart. Since 2004, Einstein has monitored participating agencies' network gateways for traffic patterns that indicate the presence of computer worms or other unwanted traffic. By collecting traffic information summaries at agency gateways, Einstein gives US-CERT analysts and participating agencies a big-picture view of bad activity on federal networks.
Einstein and U.S. cybersecurity. At a hearing last week on Capitol Hill, officials faced close, skeptical questioning about the program, an intrusion detection system that will automatically monitor and analyze Internet traffic into and out of federal computer networks in real time — allowing officials at the Department of Homeland Security to scan for anomalies that might represent hackers or other intruders trying to gain access or steal data.
House legislators rip Bush's Cyber Initiative plan. The initiative is a long-range plan to upgrade the security of the federal government's networks and comprises a number of separate proposals, most notably an overhaul and expansion of the government's intrusion detection system, known as Einstein. Currently, Einstein is simply a passive traffic-monitoring system that records basic data such as the originating IP address of a packet, its size and where the packet came from and where it is headed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carnivore
Carnivore is an e-mail wiretap system being developed and used by the FBI to read messages being circulated amongst suspected criminals and terrorists... and everybody else. There is a great deal of concern being expressed nationwide, and not just by privacy fanatics, because it is likely that such eavesdropping occurs before there is any other evidence that the affected individuals have done anything illegal. It would be much less of an issue were it not for a little technicality called the Fourth Amendment. The FBI is relying on the public (and the mainstream news media) to ignore charges such as the ACLU's statement that Carnivore represents "an unprec****ted power grab that threatens the privacy of all Americans."
There is good news about Carnivore, however. Recently I attended a meeting of local computer security experts (legitimate professionals, really, not the guys at the 2600 meeting) and the moderator of the program offered his opinion that "Carnivore is not very effective."
Don't be fooled: DCS1000 is still a "Carnivore" at heart. After a flurry of controversy over the FBI's Carnivore system for intercepting e-mail, the feds have moved promptly to address concerns -- by renaming it "DCS1000".
DCS1000: The Device Formerly Known as Carnivore: Despite some reports indicating that the name is an acronym for "data collection system," an FBI spokesperson told Reuters that it "doesn't stand for anything."
Carnivore changes name, enters witness protection program: Carnivore, the FBI's controversial Internet communications monitoring system, is undergoing a makeover. First, the FBI is going to pull out its teeth, and re-christen Carnivore DCS1000, which, in our esteem, is just a little too close to HAL2000…
FBI axes Carnivore, eats investment. The FBI has abandoned its custom-built Internet surveillance technology, dubbed Carnivore, and is now using commercial software to eavesdrop on computer network traffic during investigations of suspected criminals, terrorists and spies. In addition, it's asking Internet service providers to conducting wiretaps on targeted customers, when necessary. … The FBI didn't disclose how much it had spent on Carnivore, but outside experts estimate expenditures at somewhere between $6 illion and $15 million.
Carnivore was an Internet surveillance system developed for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) so that they could monitor the electronic transmissions of criminal suspects. Critics, however, charged that Carnivore did not include appropriate safeguards to prevent misuse and might violate the constitutional rights of the individual. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reported in early 2005 that the FBI had replaced Carnivore with other, unspecified surveillance software from commercial sources. Such software usually includes a packet sniffer.
FBI retires its Carnivore. FBI surveillance experts have put their once-controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance tool out to pasture, preferring instead to use commercial products to eavesdrop on network traffic, according to documents released Friday [1/14/2005].
FBI Abandons Web Surveillance Technology. The FBI has effectively abandoned its custom-built Internet surveillance technology, once known as Carnivore, designed to read e-mails and other online communications among suspected criminals, terrorists and spies, according to bureau oversight reports submitted to Congress.
[That's a misleading headline. The FBI hasn't abandoned their web surveillance technology, they have just changed to another make and model of software.]
Read this: Feds raid orchid-grower's home: George Norris said he believes his troubles may stem from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's use of CARNIVORE, a government system that can tap into computer e-mails. "They showed me page three of a five-page e-mail from several years ago where I was being offered smuggled plants," he said. "They did not show me pages four and five, which were my answer to this fellow, telling him we would not buy any such plants that were undocumented. This was so old that I don't even remember this e-mail.
Editor's Note: Please see the George Norris subsection on this page for more details on this case.
Inside DCSNet, the FBI's Nationwide Eavesdropping Network. The $10 million DCS-3000 client, also known as Red Hook, handles pen-registers and trap-and-traces, a type of surveillance that collects signaling information — primarily the numbers dialed from a telephone — but no communications content. DCS-6000, known as Digital Storm, captures and collects the content of phone calls and text messages for full wiretap orders. A third, classified system, called DCS-5000, is used for wiretaps targeting spies or terrorists.
FBI turns to broad new wiretap method. Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords. … "What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."
FBI's Carnivore-lies may have blown bin Laden inquiry. Fundamental design flaws in the FBI's infamous Carnivore packet sniffer have led to the destruction of evidence related to a suspect possibly involved in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network which had been obtained legally under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant, the watchdog group EPIC has learned.
Carnivore is a surveillance tool for data networks. At the heart of the project is CarnivorePE, a software application that listens to all Internet traffic (email, web surfing, etc.) on a specific local network. Next, CarnivorePE serves this data stream to interfaces called "clients." These clients are designed to animate, diagnose, or interpret the network traffic in various ways. Use CarnivorePE to run Carnivore clients from your own desktop, or use it to make your own clients.
Echelon: The US government has long conducted extensive eavesdropping overseas, as part of the National Security Agency's foreign intelligence collection activities. This foreign surveillance occurs outside the normal limitations of the Constitution. With the globalization of communications, the overseas snooping activities of the US and its allies have attracted renewed attention and concern.
Congress Passes "Roving Wiretaps," Expands Surveillance Authority. Oct 1998, in a closed-door manuever, controversial "roving wiretap" provisions were added to the Intelligence authorization bill and passed by the Congress. Prevoiusly, wiretapping law allowed tapping of a particular person's phones. The new provisions dramatically expanded current authority by allowing taps on any phone used by, or "proximate" to, the person being tapped — no matter whose phone it is. Such a broad law invites abuse. In 1996, the full House of Representatives had rejected these provisions after an open and vigorous debate. But in 1998, behind closed doors, a conference committee added the provisions to the important Intelligence Authorization Conference Report.
Does Technology Threaten Our Privacy, Morality and Freedom of Religious Expression? Two new powerful multi-billion dollar eavesdropping tools originally invented to spy on the Russians have now been turned on the American people. [They're talking about Echelon and Tempest, although Carnivore is also discussed.]
Carnivore page at COTSE dot net, which is apparently a privacy-enhanced email service.
Carnivore, Altivore, Echelon: In terms of privacy concerns as well as raw technological power, Carnivore looks like a toy compared to Echelon. Echelon is almost certainly the world's most sophisticated network monitoring system and, if rumors are to be believed, anyone who feels uncomfortable with the secrecy surrounding Carnivore should feel downright paranoid where Echelon is concerned.
Where Carnivore Lives: The FBI has already employed Carnivore in a number of cases. By law, the details of these investigations have generally not been released publicly. The only ISP positively identified as cooperating with such an investigation, in fact, is Earthlink.
Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System: Carnivore is a software-based Internet Protocol (IP) packet sniffer that can select and record a defined subset of the traffic on the network to which it is attached. Packets can be selected based on IP address, protocol, or, in the case of email, on the user names in the TO and FROM fields. In limited cases, packets can be selected based on their content. Packets can be recorded 'in their entirety (full mode) or recording can be limited to addressing information (pen mode), i.e., IP addresses and usermames.
Why Carnivore Is Bad For You: The FBI can hardly be trusted to conduct their investigations with proper handling and precision, but even if they could, Carnivore/DCS1000 will end up hurting innocent people. The amount of guesswork involved in a sweeping search like the type Carnivore/DCS1000 does insures that many "dead ends" and "bad leads" will be pursued. What this means is that the FBI will inevitably end up investigating (including search, seizure, intimidation, prosecution, etc.) innocent people.
Confounding Carnivore: How to Protect Your Online Privacy. Ever since the FBI confirmed the existence of their Internet wiretapping device — a device which they named Carnivore — cyberprivacy activists have been up in arms. Carnivore promised to be their worst nightmare: a technology that could track and record every email sent, every Web page browsed, every chat room visited.
Carnivore, Altivore, Echelon: Three big names in the world of network monitoring. In terms of privacy concerns as well as raw technological power, Carnivore looks like a toy compared to Echelon. Echelon is almost certainly the world's most sophisticated network monitoring system and, if rumors are to be believed, anyone who feels uncomfortable with the secrecy surrounding Carnivore should feel downright paranoid where Echelon is concerned.
Carnivore, Sniffers, and You: The Carnivore network diagnostic tool (sniffer) may be peeking at your email. This article offers the scoop on the FBI's latest crime-fighting tool.
Sniffer — A Definition: Network sniffers monitor data without altering its content. Sniffers are now commonly used by governments, corporations, by hackers, and by students.
FBI's Carnivore hunts in a pack. Carnivore, the FBI's controversial e-mail snooping program, is part of covert surveillance triad known inside the bureau as the "DragonWare Suite," according to recently declassified documents. The documents also outline how the DragonWare Suite is more than simply an e-mail snooping program: It's capable of reconstructing the Web surfing trail of someone under investigation.
FBI Statement for the Record on the Carnivore Diagnostic Tool
The Backdoor, the Rogue Agent, and the Mishap: the Hidden Dangers of Carnivore. This paper is intended to provide convincing reasons, beyond the 4th Amendment argument, why Carnivore is a law enforcement tool that we all should reject.
The preceding article appears at a web site called Stop Carnivore Now.
Carnivore FAQ (Sample: It is important to note that Carnivore is a passive wiretap. It does not interfere with communication. Some news reports falsely claim that Carnivore interposes itself into the stream, first grabbing data, then passing it along.
The Legal Authorities of the National Security Agency: U.S. Representative Bob Barr asserts, "While Americans remain solidly in support of a strong foreign intelligence gathering capability, they are not willing to do so at the expense of their domestic civil liberties."
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
Carnivore and Reno: Janet Reno's answers to questions about Carnivore in her weekly press conferences at the Justice Department.
Clinton Favors Computer Snooping: The Clinton administration wants to be able to send federal agents armed with search warrants into homes to copy encryption keys and implant secret back doors onto computers.
Congress, Privacy Rights Activists Blast Carnivore: Fears that the FBI is going too far with its technological invasions of communications systems were hardly soothed when Dr. Donald M. Kerr, the director of the FBI's laboratory division revealed what the bureau plans for the future.
FBI Shows Off Carnivore: FBI officials defended Carnivore by telling hand-picked media representatives that the system is necessary "because some smaller ISPs do not have the capability to provide the data that law enforcement needs quickly," the Washington Post reported.
Feds Deny Asking ISPs to Watch E-mails: Last month, the European Union passed a resolution that would require all ISPs to store for up to seven years e-mail message headers, Web-surfing histories, chat logs, pager records, phone and fax connections, passwords, and more. Already, Germany, France, Belgium, and Spain have drafted laws that comply with the directive. Technology experts say the U.S. federal government may try to do the same thing using the vast law enforcement allowances provided under the USA Patriot Act.
Carnivore: Interview with Rep. Bob Barr (R - Ga.): When the FBI launched its latest crime-fighting project, known by the name Carnivore, a lot of people worried that this new system could be dangerous - not for crooks, but for innocent people.
Outside Review of Carnivore Planned: The Justice Department is moving swiftly to get an independent evaluation of the FBI's Carnivore e-mail intercept system, even as the system is denounced by congressional Republicans and civil libertarians as a threat to privacy on the Internet.
Excellent! The Fourth Amendment and Carnivore: The Carnivore system appears to exacerbate the over collection of personal information by collecting more information than it is legally entitled to collect under traditional pen register and trap and trace laws.
Now It's Carnivore 2.0 ... Even 3.0: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now describing its Carnivore software that peeks into e-mail accounts without individual computer users' being aware as just "the tip of the iceberg."
White House Wants Cyber-Snoop Rules: The Clinton-Gore administration will propose legislation putting e-mail surveillance on legal footing akin to phone taps — but leaving the FBI's "Carnivore" spying intact.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Intrusion? "Carnivore" sifts through all online communications, such as e-mail or website traffic looking for illegal activity. The problem is that it collects all communications, legal and illegal, thus violating the privacy of citizens who are just innocently and legally conversing online with family or friends or who happen to be surfing the Net.
More DOJ Delays in Carnivore Investigation
Carnivore FOIA: A Justice Department Joke
EPIC Carnivore FOIA Documents
GOP Wants to Pull Carnivore's Teeth: What has upset so many people who use the Internet to communicate is the new high-tech FBI device — called "Carnivore" because it finds the "meat" of e-mail messages. It enables law enforcement officials to sort through every bit of everybody's e-mail messages to find those of questionable legality.
Testimony of Robert Corn-Revere, April 6, 2000: "I believe it is vital for Congress now to examine the Fourth Amendment implications of electronic surveillance on the Internet and the World Wide Web. As the United States Supreme Court explained in 1997, the Internet is a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide human communication."
Some of the technical aspects of Carnivore: Recent press reports have disclosed the existence of an FBI Internet wiretap device, known as "Carnivore". This is troubling for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is unclear just what the software and hardware does or how it works. In the U.S., there are serious legal restrictions on the use of wiretaps by police agencies. The Supreme Court has consistently held that wiretaps qualify as searches under the Fourth Amendment.
Government Privacy Violators: These days it's hard to find a politician without some plan to impose new privacy regulations on business. The physicians should first try to heal themselves. Our various levels of government have a long and undistinguished record of disrespecting our personal privacy.
Report Says Carnivore Is Tame; Critics Skeptical: The FBI developed Carnivore in 1997 to monitor the activities of suspects who communicate using e-mail, much the way the agency uses wiretaps and pen registers to monitor telephone calls and capture caller information. Privacy advocates have expressed concern the tool is too powerful, too invasive and a potential danger to civil liberties.
Carnivore - E-mail Invasion "I hope that you will research this subject more. Contact your ISP and urge them to refuse to accept Carnivore on their system. It is not a question of whether you have anything to hide. Your right to privacy is at stake. If this is allowed it can only snowball."
Help Kill the Carnivore!: Carnivore is a hardware-software device that the FBI secretly developed at its lab in Quantico, Va. Almost immediately after the existence of this project was disclosed in a July 11 Wall Street Journal article, public outrage began to mount.
Peace,
sum ting wong
(Tsingtao)