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