The Supreme Court closed a 6-year-old chapter Tuesday in the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The justices, without comment, declined to review a lower court The link for this article located at Wired is no longer available. . The High Court reaches a resolution on a protracted matter concerning unauthorized digital monitoring initiated by the ACLU.. digital privacy, electronic monitoring, EFF surveillance, court ruling. . Anthony Pell
A secretive federal court on Monday granted police broad authority to monitor Internet usage, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects. In an unexpected and near-complete victory for law enforcement. . .. A secretive federal court on Monday granted police broad authority to monitor Internet usage, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects. In an unexpected and near-complete victory for law enforcement , the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review overturned a lower court's decision and said that Attorney General John Ashcroft's request for new powers was reasonable. The 56-page ruling removes procedural barriers for federal agents conducting surveillance under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The law, enacted as part of post-Watergate reforms, permits sweeping electronic surveillance, telephone eavesdropping and surreptitious searches of residences and offices. At a press conference Monday afternoon, Ashcroft applauded the ruling, characterizing it as a "victory for liberty, safety and the security of the American people." Ashcroft said the ruling marks a new era of collaboration between police and intelligence agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Agency. "This decision allows law enforcement officials to learn from intelligence officials, and vice versa, as a means of sort of allowing the information to flow from one community to another," Ashcroft said. "This will greatly enhance our ability to put pieces together that different agencies have. I believe this is a giant step forward." The lower court, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, had said there must be a well-defined wall separating domestic police agencies from spy agencies. It accused the FBI of submitting incorrect information under oath in more than 75 cases, including one signed by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh. The lower court's decision, written in May, went sofar as to say that changes to the Justice Department's procedures were necessary "to protect the privacy of Americans in these highly intrusive surveillances and searches." Justice Department lawyers argued that the USA Patriot Act, signed by President George W. Bush last fall, made any such wall obsolete and unnecessary. The Patriot Act also changed the requirements for FISA surveillance, saying that espionage or terrorist acts did not have to be the primary purpose of the investigation but only a "significant purpose." The review court agreed with Ashcroft, even suggesting that greater use of FISA surveillance conceivably could have thwarted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It ruled that Ashcroft's proposed procedures, "if they do not meet the minimum Fourth Amendment warrant requirements, certainly come close." Civil libertarians said they were alarmed by the ruling, the public version of which was censored for security reasons. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers had filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the appeals court to uphold the lower court's decision. Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute said: "Because the FISA now applies to ordinary criminal matters if they are dressed up as national security inquiries, the new rules could open the door to circumvention of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements. The result: rubber-stamp judicial consent to phone and Internet surveillance, even in regular criminal cases, and FBI access to medical, educational and other business records that conceivably relate to foreign intelligence probes." The link for this article located at News.com is no longer available. . A recent court ruling expands law enforcement's powers for digital monitoring, sparking debates about personal privacy rights and the evolution of surveillance methods. Internet Surveillance, FISA Law, Police Authority, Privacy Rights, Electronic Monitoring. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Echelon exists, the European Union (EU) Parliament was told Wednesday. Echelon, allegedly a vast information collection system capable of monitoring all the electronic communications in the world, has been talked about in security circles for several years. But no government agency . . . . Echelon exists, the European Union (EU) Parliament was told Wednesday. Echelon, allegedly a vast information collection system capable of monitoring all the electronic communications in the world, has been talked about in security circles for several years. But no government agency in the world has ever confirmed or denied its existence. An EU committee has been investigating the system for almost a year. Just because the surveillance network exists, however, doesn't mean that government agencies can access all the information Echelon collects, Gerhard Schmid, the German Member of the European Parliament (MEP), told Parliament members in Strasbourg. The European Parliament accepted Schmid and his team's 130-page-plus report and its 44 recommendations in a 367-159 vote. There were 34 abstentions, though these were not explained. In his presentation, Schmid said that Echelon which allegedly is a joint venture between the governments of the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia and New Zealand - sucks up electronic transmissions "like a vacuum cleaner," using keyword search techniques to sift through enormous amounts of data. The link for this article located at ComputerUser is no longer available. . The unveiling of Echelon at the European Parliament sheds light on the vast surveillance of digital interactions. Understand the consequences.. Echelon Network, Electronic Surveillance, Data Monitoring. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
The Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute has barely begun its review of Carnivore, an electronic-surveillance system being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but already a Congressional leader is branding the review a "sham.". . .. The Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute has barely begun its review of Carnivore, an electronic-surveillance system being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but already a Congressional leader is branding the review a "sham." Richard K. Armey, the Texas Republican who is majority leader of the House of Representatives, criticized the Justice Department on Thursday for selecting the research institute, a nonprofit affiliate of I.I.T., because one member of the institute's review team worked for the Clinton administration and another was once an employee of the Justice Department. The link for this article located at The Chronicle is no longer available. . The analysis conducted by Illinois Institute regarding the FBI's Carnivore tracking system has incited backlash from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.. Illinois Institute,FBI Surveillance,Carnivore System,Government Oversight,Electronic Monitoring. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Get the latest Linux and open source security news straight to your inbox.