FBI Tosses Carnivore To The Dogs

KingFishKingFish
edited January 2005 in Science & Tech
The FBI has effectively abandoned its custom-built internet surveillance technology, once known as Carnivore, designed to read e-mails and other online communications among suspected criminals, terrorists and spies, according to bureau oversight reports submitted to Congress.
Instead, the FBI said it has switched to unspecified commercial software to eavesdrop on computer traffic during such investigations and has increasingly asked internet providers to conduct wiretaps on targeted customers on the government's behalf, reimbursing companies for their costs.

The FBI performed only eight internet wiretaps in fiscal 2003 and five in fiscal 2002; none used the software initially called Carnivore and later renamed the DCS-1000, according to FBI documents submitted to Senate and House oversight committees. The FBI, which once said Carnivore was "far better" than commercial products, said previously it had used the technology about 25 times between 1998 and 2000.

The FBI said it could not disclose how much it spent to produce the surveillance software it no longer uses, saying part of its budget was classified. Outside experts said the government probably spent between $6 million and $15 million.
No word on the "magic lantern" project? -KF

Source: Wired

Comments

  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    I thought it had a different name, and I thought they constantly claimed to not have it. The name started with an "E" I think.
  • BriltBrilt brooklyn
    edited January 2005
    echelon ?


    or have i played deus ex one time to many
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    this news item has the best subject line evar.
  • SputnikSputnik Worcester, MA
    edited January 2005
    echelon is right brilt, sad but true. that still exists but it's more of a NATO (and by NATO I mean America, Britian, and Canada) thing. It technically is a information network where each country employs the other countries to spy on each other (i.e. the US spies on the british, the british spy on the US and, well, sorry to say MM, but noone cares about the canadians, it allows each country to say that they don't spy on their own citizens, while allowing them to have information if needed).
  • teflemingtefleming
    edited January 2005
    Raise your hand if you believe the FBI *actually* gave up carnivore...
    :thumbsdow
  • BriltBrilt brooklyn
    edited January 2005
    i dunno tefleming i think they did cancel it. They probably have other secret projects we don't know about that do that.

    I mean come on are they really gonna tell us about stuff they have to spy on us, that kinda defeats the purpose of spying.
Sign In or Register to comment.