[10574] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
FBI Wiretap Costs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brock N. Meeks)
Sun Feb 27 06:38:01 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 12:41:14 -0800
From: "Brock N. Meeks" <brock@well.sf.ca.us>
To: com-priv@psi.com
//CyberWire Dispatch/Copyright (c) 1994//
Jacking in from the Financial Port:
Washington, DC -- The White House is jumping into the lion's den.
The Administration is backing a controversial FBI plan that would
mandate the installation of wiretap "trap doors" on all types of
communications, government sources said. But the decision to
support the so-called "Digital Telephony Bill" is based, in large
part, on severely flawed data.
A confidential FBI cost analysis document, a copy of which was
obtained by Dispatch, estimates it would take some $300 million to
implement the mandatory wiretap access scheme. But government and
industry sources say that the actual cost of implementation could
quickly escalate to more than $1 billion. Reason: The FBI's own
cost analysis doesn't consider the price of mandatory compliance
for computer networks, cable TV operations, digital cellular
systems, or emerging personal communications systems.
A key factor in the debate holding up the announcement of White
House backed digital wiretap legislation is who will eventually be
saddled with the bill. It might help if the FBI could come up with
some reliable figures, but even their own classified documents
acknowledge that they don't have a clue: "The cost to the
telecommunications industry of complying with the provisions and
requirements of the legislation is not susceptible the precise
measurement."
Software Solutions
==================
The FBI's answer to the digital wiretap problem lies in developing
a software program that could be loaded into a telephone switch.
But the cost for developing this software is "difficult to estimate
absent specific feasibility studies," FBI documents say. It is
known that at least four different versions of the program would
have be written to cover the installed base of telephone switches
in the U.S.
What the FBI's cost estimate doesn't mention is the price for
maintaining the software. Currently the Baby Bells and major
independent telephone companies spend more than $1 billion in new
switch and application upgrade software, according to the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Now, you tell me,
who's going to pony up the bucks to revise the wiretap software to
make sure it's compatible with each new calling feature and
modification to switch software?
Quality control and the integrity of the nation's telephone network
isn't something the phone companies are willing to fuck with.
Software is a big, big deal. Switch manufacturers remember all too
well getting reamed by House Telecommunications Subcommittee
Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) during intense congressional hearings
in 1990 to explain why half of the East Coast lost dial tone when
switches toppled like dominoes. The cause, it was later admitted,
was a "3 Bit Bug" software coding error. The switch's software
revision hadn't undergone rigorous enough testing before being
installed in the local network.
So, who picks up the check? The FBI first wanted you to pay for
all this work. That's right, through higher local telephone rates.
That idea drew such withering fire from consumer groups and
industry that the FBI deleted that language from its original bill.
But the question remains: Who the hell is going to pay?
The FBI says it can short hop all this grief: "Industry may, after
comparing the necessary attributes of electronic surveillance with
available or planned network/system analysis and maintenance tools,
formulate solutions for embedded and emerging systems that would
require a much less extensive level of efforts, and a commensurate
reduction of costs."
In other words, the FBI thinks switch manufacturers will simply
start making their switches "wiretap ready" as they come off the
damn assembly line. Neat trick if you can pull it off. Bury the
cost in the R&D budget, hide it in the retail cost of the switch
and BINGO, the phone companies get to depreciate the cost over 20
years and the ratepayer (that's you) has no idea that they end up
paying to make some cop's life easier.
Data Diving
===========
When it comes to eavesdropping on someone's Prodigy or CompuServe
or Internet session, the FBI again has a simple solution: Turn the
system administrator into an ad hoc FBI agent. You think I'm
joking? Check out this statement, again from the confidential FBI
report: "Enhanced audit functions could be included in future
operating system revisions or through after-market
diagnostics/audit software packages. (The Norton Network Wiretap
Utilities, no doubt.) The implementation of this capability would
be, in essence, a no cost educational process for the system's
operator or administrator." (But will they be able to sleep at
night?)
Cable TV systems get hammered, too. With cable companies getting
into the telephone business, the FBI wants to be sure they are
required to make their networks wiretap ready. Because "a certain
number" of wiretaps "would be expected to occur within such
systems," the FBI said. The FBI cost documents don't even proffer
a guess at what it would cost to front load cable networks with
wiretap software. Instead, the FBI says that if these cable
systems use the switches of the Baby Bells, well, everything is
Jake. Why? Because the local telephone companies would have
already installed the damn software long ago.
What happens if cable companies want to build their own independent
telephone networks? Not to worry, the FBI says, "it would be
contemplated that [cable companies] would 'engineer in' criminal
law enforcement's needs in the design stages of development." And
once that occurs, "the costs associated with compliance would be
minimal," the FBI says.
The same logic applies to emerging PCS systems. The "most cost
efficient solution" for potential PCS companies is to design and
plan for mandatory wiretap access capability "during the
development and pre-production phase" of their networks, the FBI
said.
Are you getting this? If the FBI gets its way, the entire NEXT
GENERATION of communications networks -- from your hand held "call
anywhere phone," to your digital personal assistant, like Apple's
Newton -- will come PRE-INSTALLED with wiretap capability. And the
cost will be buried, yet again, the design phase. Nice touch.
Oh yeah, then there are those pesky PBXs, the ones owned by
businesses, schools, churches, libraries, non-profit organizations.
According to the FCC there are up to 400,000 of these buggers
hanging around, of which 70% are analog breathing technological
beasts. Analog technology is doable for the FBI; it's the digital
shit they can't handle.
The FBI says that to replace a PBX that gives them grief would cost
an average of $70,000, in 1992 dollars. So, being the nice guys
they are, the FBI would allow the Justice Department to grant a
waiver to these PBX owners so they could save up enough money to
buy a wiretap equipped PBX.
Digital Wiretaps, Making the Nation Safe
========================================
The FBI thinks all this is worth it, apparently at any cost.
Failing to do so would cause "enormous economic harm" due to crime,
which it estimates is in the multibillion range, the FBI says.
Still not convinced? Well, to hell with the cost, the damn
telecommunications industry is obligated to do all this, according
to FBI logic.
"It is worth noting... that the telecommunications industry
historically has been required to respond to public safety needs
both at the state and Federal levels," the FBI says. "We view the
legislative proposal as being consistent with the need to ensure
the public's safety through the effective enforcement of the law."
Meeks out...
