82 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
82 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
The following is taken from a recent issue of Government Computer Week:
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The House Judiciary Committee is considering a proposal that the Federal
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Bureau of investigation and Secret Service report regularly to Congress on
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the extent to which the two law-enforcement agencies monitor computer
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bulletin boards.
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A committee spokesman said law makers are considering ways to increase
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oversight of the agencies' computer surveillance activities in proposed
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amendments to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute of 1984.
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"We're not so much interested in the privacy issue that such investigations
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raise; we're bothered more by the lack of checks and balances that keep [the
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FBI and Secret Service] from doing sting operations," said a spokesman for
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the committee. "The staff has considered proposing that the FBI and Secret
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Service report to Congress on a regular basis as to what they're doing in the
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area."
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The committee is particularly concerned with the amount of electronic
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bulletin board monitoring conducted by the Secret Service. "The FBI monitors,
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but not that much because it's not cost-effective," the spokesman said. "But
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the Secret Service is doing a hell of a lot of monitoring."
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The Secret Service "has primary jurisdiction in those cases which are
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initiated outside a bank and do not involve organized crime, terrorism or
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foreign counterintelligence," according to Secret Service Director John
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Simpson in a letter responding to Judiciary Committee inquiries on the range
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of the agency's computer investigations.
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Top Secret Service officials and the rank and file deny they conduct
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widespread or indiscriminate bulletin board surveillance, saying that they do
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not have the time or the resources to do so. "If someone thinks we have the
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resources to monitor all the bulletin boards on the area, they're wrong."
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said Rich Adams, a special agent. "We have better things to do with our 4,300
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employees."
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The Service said its investigations are usually a direct response to tips
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from informants or are started from other sources, such as a telephone
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company. "In the investigations we do select, it is not our intention to
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attempt to supplant local or state law enforcement," said Simpson in his
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letter to the committee.
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Much of the computer work done by the Secret Service is in investigating
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access-device frauds that are discussed in pirate bulletin boards., Simpson
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said in his letter. Access device frauds are those crimes in which an
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"authorized" user gains illegal access to automatic teller machines, personal
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identification numbers, long distance telephone access codes or computer
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passwords.
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This information is often placed on underground bulletin boards for other
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computer users to exploit. "I've seen everything from smut to a recipe for
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making a bomb," said Mike Focke, a private citizen who compiles and publishes
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a list of IBM bulletin boards monthly. He added that he "would not be able to
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penetrate that illegal network [but] would dial onto the board, and a message
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would be posted that I suspected they were up to no good."
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Earl Devany, special agent in charge of the Fraud Division of the Secret
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Service, said the Service is not in the business of eavesdropping on computer
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buffs. But he added that the Service does conduct surveillance on those
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suspected of illegal activity.
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The Secret Service said it reviews computer crimes much the same way it
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does other crimes: by proceeding through the proper authorization channels.
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"First, some probable cause must be proved before we can get a federal search
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warrant and then a wire tap," Devany said.
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But the Service had to adjust its methods to match the high-tech nature of
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the crimes. "The primary difference is we had to develop resource to assist
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in the collection and review of computer evidence," Simpson said. An effort
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to cultivate such resources has been made by the Computer Diagnostics Center,
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which is staffed by special agents and computer professionals who review
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evidence submitted by informants or victims of computer crime.
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Investigators at the center use "a variety of computers to review software
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seized in cases." Devany said. "Say we have a criminal investigation of
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trafficing credit card numbers. We get a federal search warrant and seize
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software and hardware that we find in a person's house". Agents at the center
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then manually review the disks and "download resonant evidence in the
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hardware and software, looking for evidence of criminality," he said.
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Painfully typed at a late hour. As for the comment on the availability of smut
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and bomb recipes, I only post the best smut I can find, and I never could bake
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a proper bomb from those recipes. I must have needed to use the high altitide
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instructions. I typed this entire article because I saw a message posted on
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Fidonet where a sysop was worried about the activities of the CIA, NSA and FBI.
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He was worried about the wrong people. If the CIA or NSA were caught monitoring
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you, somebody could be prosecuted for illegally monitoring you (they are
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restricted to foreign collection). Is seems the ones to worry about are the
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Secret Service and the FBI. I also worry about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
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and Firearms, as they want my Second Amendment rights too ("...the right to
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keep and bare arms shall not be infringed.")
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<JOKER>
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