EarthLink Nixes FBI's Carnivore Spy Gadget
http://www.computeruser.com/news/00/07/15/news7.html
By -- Martin Stone, Newsbytes
July 15, 2000
Saying it could cause technical problems and bring part of its system down,
EarthLink Inc. [NASDAQ:ELNK], one of the country's largest Internet service
providers (ISPs), has reportedly refused to install a new FBI electronic
surveillance device on its network.
A Wall Street Journal report today quoted EarthLink's director of technology
acquisition, Steve Dougherty, as saying, "It has the potential to hurt our
network, to bring pieces of it down. "It could impact thousands of people."
The device, called Carnivore, has been used by the FBI in a number of
criminal investigations, and the Bureau claims it does not interfere with
ISP operations. But EarthLink, the first ISP to offer a public account of an
experience with Carnivore, said that earlier this year, the FBI placed the
device at a Pasadena, Calif., hub site as part of a criminal investigation.
The gadget, loaded with sophisticated software for monitoring e-mail
messages and other online communications, was not compatible with the
operating system on the remote access servers, so EarthLink installed an
older version of the system software that was compatible. This caused remote
access servers to crash, which in turn trashed access for a number of
customers, the report said.
The company also added that it didn't know if Carnivore was limiting its
spying to the investigation at hand or trolling more broadly. Other ISPs
have said there could be serious liability issues if the privacy of
individuals not connected to an investigation is compromised, the report
said, and added that while EarthLink executives vowed to continue to work
with authorities in criminal investigations, they will not allow the FBI to
install Carnivore on the network.
Reported By Newsbytes.com,
http://www.newsbytes.com
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