[7773] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Five big schools nix Carnivore review
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (rodger@att.net)
Wed Sep 6 11:53:44 2000
From: rodger@att.net
To: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 15:47:54 +0000
Message-Id: <20000906154756.QTNN15332.mtiwmhc21.worldnet.att.net@webmail.worldnet.att.net>
Researchers refuse Carnivore review
By Will Rodger, USATODAY.com
Five groups of researchers have bowed out of the
competition to evaluate the so-called Carnivore Internet
surveillance system. And that likely will dash Justice
Department hopes that a major university would validate
its controversial eavesdropping device, participants
said Tuesday.
Attorney General Janet Reno seemed confident Aug. 10
that one of several then-unnamed schools would take up
the challenge of verifying that Carnivore, when properly
used, would not violate the civil rights of individuals
subject to its workings.
But rules for the review published Aug. 24 have
encountered stiff opposition from researchers approached
for the job by the Justice Department. The Department,
they say now, is effectively asking for a meaningless
examination of a device whose potential for abuse may
well outstrip its usefulness.
"This is not a request for an independent report," says
Jeffrey Schiller, a computer network manager at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was asked to
work on the review. "They want a rubber stamp."
<snip>
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti490.htm
