Re: DEA Intercepts

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 9:19 PM 7/7/96, John Young wrote:
>Would anyone know more about the DEA "process the intercepts by computer"
>in the excerpt below from today's Wash Post? Any connection to Peter
>Neuman's remarks at the CRISIS press conference about LEA training and
>technology as alternatives to breaking strong crypto?

>   and process the intercepts by computer. The FBI is plowing
>   millions into developing new intercept techniques for
>   digital lines and expanding its cadre of agents who use the
>   bureau's high tech surveillance gear.

I have no way of knowing (and I doubt anybody knows and can also speak
publically about it), but my informed speculation would be that the FBI is
continuing its cooperation with the NSA (as noted by Ken Bass at last
week's SAFE forum) and is using COMINT processing gear and programs
developed at the Agency.

It has been widely reported, from Bamford on, that much of the Agency's
computer power is devoted to keyword analysis from audio intercepts. While
computer translation programs may not have progressed much beyond "The
vodka is strong, but the meat is rotten" stage, it is quite reasonable to
assume that computers can mark for later analysis vast amounts of audio
surveillance material, based on words said, voiceprints of known targets,
etc.

The trend of the next few decades is likely to be the turning of the
government's Big Ears and Big Eyes on its _real enemies_, namely, the
people.

>   "I don't think J. Edgar Hoover would contemplate what we
>   can do today in terms of technology," Reno testified during
>   a Senate hearing in May.

Actually, I think Hoover could well imagine the capabilities. Minaret and
such programs were in place while he was alive, and his use of confidential
dossiers as an instrument of power predated the current use by the Clintons
by several decades.


>   The total number of federal wiretaps is just one measure of
>   the rise in federal surveillance. The build-up also is
>   evident in the increased use of electronic devices that
>   record the numbers dialed by a target telephone, and the
>   origin of calls to it.
>
>   These devices allow agents to identify a person's
>   associates. Beginning in 1993, Justice agencies began using
>   the court-authorized monitors more often and leaving them
>   installed for longer periods of time, according to a
>   Justice Department report.

Needless to say, key escrow is quite useful in compiling contact lists. A
virtual pen register, as it were.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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