[The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition]
                               July 20, 2000

Politics & Policy

FBI Says Carnivore Tool
Won't Eat Up Privacy

   By TED BRIDIS and NEIL KING JR.
   Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

   WASHINGTON -- Packed in a slim laptop computer, the Federal Bureau of
   Investigation's Internet surveillance system, Carnivore, looks
   downright docile. One of its creators calls it merely a "tool in a
   tool box" for tracking hackers and terrorists. Its name, the FBI
   admits, is unfortunate.

   It is too late to change the name -- but not too late, the FBI
   figures, to try to change the opinions of privacy advocates and
   lawmakers who have spoken harshly of the high-tech sniffer. So the
   agency has launched an intense, behind-the-scenes campaign to deflect
   congressional skepticism and convince wary Internet companies that
   Carnivore is a much pickier eater than its critics claim.

   [Go] 1Issue Briefing: Net Privacy

                                   * * *

   [Go] 2ACLU Requests More Information on FBI System to Monitor E-Mail
   (July 17)

   Since news of Carnivore broke last week, FBI officials have swarmed
   Capitol Hill to demonstrate the system to key members of Congress and
   their staff. The officials also have shown it to two federal judges
   and a small group of reporters for The Wall Street Journal. And
   Tuesday, the FBI published a lengthy article about Carnivore on its
   Web site, describing it as a "diagnostic tool" that employs new
   technology "to lawfully obtain important information while providing
   enhanced privacy protection."

   The message: Carnivore is a surgical law-enforcement device used
   rarely and only under strict court orders. And, contrary to fears
   espoused publicly in recent days, the system doesn't gobble up all
   passing e-mail in its search for the correspondence of a single
   suspect. "This device is blind to everything but the packet [of
   information] that it's set to retrieve," says Thomas Motta, an
   assistant general counsel for the FBI. "It's like a cop who can't see
   anything but a blue car on a highway."

   In advance of a hastily called congressional hearing next week, FBI
   officials also have been expressing regrets about the system's name.
   Carnivore was the in-house moniker given to the successor of an
   earlier surveillance system, which was called Omnivore. No one thought
   the name would become public. When it did last week, Attorney General
   Janet Reno called for a name change, and FBI Director Louis Freeh
   started asking how the bureau could have had such a tin ear.

   "Let's just say, we're going to put names through the giggle-test a
   little differently in the future," says Donald Kerr, director of the
   special Quantico, Va., lab that developed Carnivore.

   The system's critics are likely to demand more than merely cosmetic
   change. Lawmakers are eager to know how voracious Carnivore could get.
   Can it vacuum up Internet communications from innocent users? How
   frequently is it used, and under what legal basis? Is Carnivore hooked
   permanently into the country's Internet service providers? How can we
   trust that it does only what the FBI says?

   Protecting Citizens

   "We want to hear exactly how this system works and make sure it raises
   no constitutional problems," says Rep. Charles Canady, the Florida
   Republican who heads the House judiciary subcommittee that will
   question FBI officials next week. Adds Rep. Asa Hutchinson, an
   Arkansas Republican and member of the same panel: "We have to protect
   citizens from inadvertent action as well as snooping by the
   government."
   carnivore

   The system is designed to allow the FBI to conduct efficient wiretaps
   of e-mail conversations and other online communications involving
   suspected hackers, terrorists and other criminals. The fear among
   critics is that Carnivore will scoop up transmissions made between
   innocent civilians and lay them open to scrutiny.

   Internet providers, such as Iconn.Net of New Haven, Conn., say
   Carnivore is unnecessary because they already can do the monitoring
   the FBI needs if ordered by a court. "We're able to do it faster, more
   efficiently and, most importantly, without intruding on the privacy of
   people not within the scope of the search," says Peter William Sachs,
   president of Iconn.Net, who is scheduled to testify at next week's
   hearing. EarthLink Inc., one of the nation's largest Internet service
   providers, says it refused earlier this year to install Carnivore on
   its network, claiming technical adjustments required to use the device
   caused disruptions for its customers.

   In its meetings with lawmakers and others, the FBI has described the
   inner workings of the system in unusual detail. In one demonstration
   this week, the agency was keen to show how the system could tailor its
   search so it captures only the e-mails moving into and out of one
   particular account. The FBI said Carnivore is smart enough to capture
   a suspect's e-mails while leaving untouched messages sent by his or
   her spouse or children.

   'Packet Filters'

   The system belongs to a class of tools known as "packet filters" or
   "sniffers," which look for parcels of data that travel across a
   network and comprise an e-mail or a visit to a Web site. Using a
   Windows screen, Carnivore also can be set to capture file downloads
   and chat-room conversations. It can grab e-mail from the most popular
   Web-based companies, including Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s
   Hotmail. And once it is installed at an Internet service provider, the
   FBI can dial into Carnivore to make changes and monitor data that have
   been collected.

   The FBI is adamant about dispelling fears that Carnivore could be used
   for rampant tapping of public e-mail systems. For one, wiretapping
   requests are closely scrutinized by the Justice Department, and must
   be approved by a federal judge. Abuse by a rogue investigator is even
   less likely, the bureau says, because the rogue would need too much
   cooperation from other FBI techies and the Internet service provider,
   says Marcus Thomas, a developer of the system at Quantico.

   Depending on a judge's instructions, Carnivore can be set to merely
   trace Internet communications to and from a suspect, called a "pen
   register" or "trap and trace." Carnivore records the Internet
   addresses of passing traffic but not, for example, the contents or
   even the subject line of an e-mail. Since the amount of information
   gathered is relatively small in these instances, even a week's worth
   of monitoring can be stored on a single floppy disk, the agency says.
   With judicial permission, the system also can conduct fuller
   intercepts, which would gather the contents of the e-mails and other
   data.

   The FBI says Carnivore doesn't monitor the content of passing e-mails,
   a capability widely rumored to exist in the controversial "Echelon"
   surveillance network operated overseas by the National Security
   Agency. Bureau officials said watching for key words in passing
   e-mails was technically possible, but that it would slow Internet
   traffic unacceptably for all customers. "If you attempt with a machine
   like this to actually read everything that goes by, you very quickly
   cannot deal with it." Mr. Thomas says.

   The FBI now says it has used Carnivore in fewer than 25 investigations
   over the past 18 months, most targeting suspected terrorists or
   computer hackers. In each case, the system was connected to a
   commercial Internet service provider, where it intercepted data or
   e-mails in strict compliance with a court order, the FBI says.

   Privacy advocates, who haven't been privy to the FBI demonstrations,
   hunger for much more than explanations. The American Civil Liberties
   Union wants the FBI to suspend Carnivore's use, arguing that Internet
   providers can already conduct adequate electronic wiretaps. The ACLU
   also has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the
   blueprints of how Carnivore works. Many in the industry want these
   same plans -- called the "source code" -- to insure that the system
   isn't open to abuse and won't disrupt business.

   The FBI says making Carnivore's inner workings public would allow
   hackers to defeat it. "Once you know how it works ... it could be
   fairly trivial to evade it," Mr. Thomas says.

   Legislation to quash Carnivore entirely is unlikely, but lawmakers
   could move to tighten the requirements for its use or to impose rules
   that would further protect the privacy of innocent Internet users.
   Many argue that Carnivore points up the need for Congress to wrestle
   with a larger dilemma: updating the nation's wiretap laws, hatched
   long before the Internet existed.

   Write to Ted Bridis at [log in to unmask] and Neil King Jr. at
   [log in to unmask]
     _________________________________________________________________


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