Paul Hughes wrote:
>
> Transhuman Mailing List
>
> I just read this article by Robert X. Cringley:
>
> Original Article: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20000713.html
> Carnivore is a sealed box that is installed at the network
> operations center of an Internet Service Provider. It filters packets,
> finds e-mail going to and from [whomever], and saves that
> e-mail for later decryption and analysis.
> What bothers me is the damned box. Why would the FBI need a
> box? Here's all the FBI will say about Carnivore. It sits on the
> network at the ISP, is PC-based, is "a kind of a sniffer," identifies
> and saves packets associated with [whomever],
> You don't need a sealed box
> to do any of these tasks, most of which are already being done for
> completely legal reasons right inside the router at every ISP.
> So why the box?
>
> The probable reason is because cops like to be in control.
> But wait, it gets [more interesting].
> usually comes with nifty things
> like redundant backbone connections and diesel generators
> This still leaves us wondering why the FBI insists on this program
> that isn't really necessary to do what they say they want to do.
> But I have my own theory about Carnivore.... If
> we ever hear a proposal from the FBI in which it plans to install
> Carnivores at all 6000 ISPs in the U.S., we'll be giving the
> government the power to do something it can't do right now.
>
> Shut the Internet down.
Maybe, but this would be self-defeating.
What would the internet look like in wartime? Would there not be
military personel at every physical ISP? Would not a Carnivore box
provides a sealed, standardized sniffer etc.?
-- Forrest Bishop Manager, Interworld Productions, LLC Chairman, Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering http://www.speakeasy.org/~forrestb
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:45 MDT