> > > > http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/biztech/articles/28compute.html > > July 28, 1999 > > U.S. Drafting Plan for Computer > Monitoring System > > By JOHN MARKOFF > > The Clinton Administration has developed a plan for an extensive > computer monitoring system, overseen by the Federal Bureau of > Investigation, to protect the nation's crucial data networks from intruders. > > [...] > > The plan calls for the creation of a > Federal Intrusion Detection Network, > or Fidnet, and specifies that the data > it collects will be gathered at the National Infrastructure Protection > Center, an interagency task force housed at the Federal Bureau of > Investigation. > > Such a system, to be put fully in place by 2003, is meant to permit > Government security experts to track "patterns of patterns" of information > and respond in a coordinated manner against intruders and terrorists. > > The plan focuses on monitoring data flowing over Government and > national computer networks. That means the systems would potentially > have access to computer-to-computer communications like electronic > mail and other documents, computer programs and remote log-ins. > > But an increasing percentage of network traffic, like banking and financial > information, is routinely encrypted and would not be visible to the > monitor software. Government officials argue that they are not interested > in eavesdropping, but rather are looking for patterns of behavior that > suggest illegal activity. > > [...]
