>From Dave Farber's IP list. --XJ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of David Farber Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 8:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: IP: Fox News goes overboard
>X-Server-Uuid: 47feacc6-2336-11d3-82c6-0008c7db26d1 >From: "Baker, Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >cc: "Albertazzie, Sally" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >Dave: > >I can't remember whether you carried the Fox News story. If you did, you >might be interested in this. > >Stewart > > > >Fox News recently reported that the FBI has a plan to change the >architecture of the Internet, centralizing it and providing "a technical >backdoor to the networks of Internet service providers." Like many others, >I thought this was big news, and rather surprising. Until I realized that >the reporter only cited one source and that it was, well, me. Fox News's >claims go beyond the facts I provided to her, and beyond any that I know >about. > >To be clear, I believe that the FBI is at work on an initiative to make >Internet communications, indeed any packet data communications, more >susceptible to intercept and more productive of non-content data about >communications -- the sort of "pen register" data that was expressly >approved for Internet communications in the recent antiterrorism bill. This >initiative will have architectural implications for packet data >communications systems. The FBI is likely to press providers of those >services to centralize communications in nodes where interception will be >more convenient, and it is likely to call on packet data services to build >systems that provide more information about the communications of their >subscribers. > >The vehicle for this initiative is CALEA, the Communications Assistance for >Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 enactment that actually requires telecom >carriers to redesign their networks to provide better wiretap capabilities. >The act is supposed to exempt information services, but the vagueness of >that provision has encouraged the FBI to expand its mandate into packet-data >communications. The Bureau is now preparing a general CALEA proposal for >all packet-data systems. While I have not seen it, the Bureau's past >interventions into packet-data and other communications architecture have >had two characteristics -- they have sought more centralization in order to >simplify interception and they have asked providers to generate new data >messages about their subscribers' activities -- messages that are of value >only to law enforcement. > >There are real legal and policy questions that should be raised about this >effort. In my view, it goes beyond what Congress intended in 1994. And the >implications for Internet users and technologies deserve to be debated. But >making these points, as I did with Fox News, is not the same as saying that >the FBI has a firm plan to centralize the Internet and build back doors into >all ISP networks. If Fox News wants to break that story, it will need a >source other than me. > >Stewart Baker >Steptoe & Johnson LLP >1330 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. >Washington, DC 20036 For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/