Carnivore - Reno Delays Carnivore Study Pick

Reno Delays Carnivore Study Pick

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press Writer

August 23, 2000

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Attorney General Janet Reno has postponed
until Sept. 15 her selection of a university to analyze the
FBI's "Carnivore" e-mail surveillance system to give the
many schools that have volunteered an equal shot at the
work.

Reno told her weekly news conference Wednesday that the
department would post on its website at 5 p.m. Thursday "a
statement of work and specific expectations for the
review."

She launched the review after members of Congress and civil
liberties groups objected to the computerized system.

The Carnivore system has software that scans and captures
"packets," the standard unit of Internet traffic, as they
travel through an internet service provider's network. The
FBI installs a Carnivore unit at a provider's network
station and configures it to capture only e-mail to or from
someone under investigation.

FBI officials say court orders limit which e-mails they can
see.

But privacy advocates say only the FBI knows what Carnivore
can do, and Internet providers are not allowed access to the
system. They ask why the FBI retains remote control of
Carnivore equipment and doesn't just give it to Internet
providers so they can comply with court orders.

Reno said the review standards will be posted for 10
business days, followed by a two-day selection period in
which the department's internal Carnivore review team will
decide which university to recommend to Reno.

"This will ensure that all the universities what want to be
considered will be able to apply based on the same
standards, and everyone, including privacy and industry
experts, will understand exactly what we are expecting from
the review process," Reno said.

Civil liberties groups had argued that Reno should just make
Carnivore's computer source code public for the widest
possible analysis of its capabilities. Justice officials
said many schools expressed interest, and some offered to
conduct the review for free.

Reno said she would pick a school by Sept. 15. "We are
committed to having an independent technical review complete
by Dec. 1," Reno said.

The university's technical review will be analyzed by the
internal Justice review team which will forward its
recommendations to Reno after obtaining public comment on
the university's technical review. Earlier, Assistant
Attorney General Steve Colgate, head of the internal team,
had spoken of having that process finished with
recommendations to Reno by Dec. 1.