[905] in peace2
FBI, FBI, MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Fri Aug 10 19:48:40 2001
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To: peace-list@mit.edu
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Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 19:48:23 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
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1) Toh recommends the following article,
2) also, the Phoenix has a really good article about
the FBI in general this week. Check it out, they
are free and lying around all over campus.
3) and I hope no one missed the globe article yesterday
about the possibility of MIT's failure to act effectively
in a harassment case contributing to a student taking her
own life last spring. Front page/below the fold. I know
it is hard to imagine that MIT admin would fail to
take a harassment case seriously, but we just have to
trust them, b/c they tell us they are the "experts"...
meanwhile, our women in science stats have suffered another
hit, and, obviously, much more importantly, her family and
friends are deprived of a precious loved-one...
meanwhile, the students who work to get awareness programs
about violence against women are treated like evil meddlers
with a political "axe to grind" -- you know, that extremely
biased point of view that no one should need to feel
afraid in their own home or workspace? Rabidly radical
and a dangerous concept, I know. It would alter virtually
every aspect of society as we know it... but enough
editorializing from me for one day.
=========================================================
The original file is at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/20894.html
FBI chief Mueller lied to Senate about key-logging
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 08/08/2001 at 18:59 GMT
New FBI chief Robert Mueller's testimony before the US
Senate during his confirmation hearing last week, to the
effect that he had no understanding of key-logging technology,
sounded very wrong to us.
We were hoping that he was just exhibiting naiveté when,
under questioning from US Senator Maria Cantwell (Democrat,
Washington State) about the FBI's prosecution of mobster
Nicodemo Scarfo, Jr. by means of a black-bag job involving
a key logger, Mueller claimed that he's "not familiar with
that new technology, and [had] not had occasion to use it
in [his] district."
We figured that little gem had to be either a bald-faced lie,
or evidence of his technical incompetence and consequent unfitness
to lead the FBI in the 21st Century.
Naturally, we all prefer honest incompetence to active deceit,
and we were hoping that the second explanation would prove right;
but we're sorry to report that we've got evidence that Mueller
actually knows a great deal about key-logging technology.
If we consult the following advisory from the Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon
University, we find that Mueller contributed to a report on the
legalities of installing key-logging technology on a network.
The bulletin advises systems administrators that because key
logging could be controversial (as the courts had yet to rule
on its legality), it would be best to put a prominent banner
warning users and intruders alike that their comings and goings
will be monitored.
The bulletin is dated December 1992, revised September 1997.
Clearly, Mueller has been well acquainted with the technology
he told Congress he knows nothing about.
Obviously, in order to offer legal advice about key logging he
would have to understand the technology quite well.
And even if he was splitting hairs during his confirmation,
i.e., speaking of a very specific implementation of key-logging
technology which he himself hasn't yet played with, he's still
deceitful.
He might have been a man about it, and declined to answer on
grounds that the technology in question is currently being
tested in the courts -- that is, in the Scarfo case. At least
he would have shown some spine. But by fobbing off the question
with a lie, or with a split-hair statement calculated to mislead
the Senate, he demonstrated that he's afraid of tough questions,
and eager to take the coward's path out.
It's a sad symbol of his brand-new tenure, and a most horrible
way to start it. ®
_______________________________________________________________________
Toh Ne Win Phone: +1 (617) 225 8560
URL: http://web.mit.edu/tohn/www
MIT Random Hall
290 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
"Nonsense! I have not created a religion. I am the religion!"
- Lord Leto II, God Emperor of Arakkis
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