[Infowarrior] - FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned

[Richard Forno]

FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 8, 2008; A03

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702
364_pf.html


When FBI investigators probing New York prostitution rings, Boston organized
crime or potential terrorist plots anywhere want access to a suspect's
telephone contacts, technicians at a telecommunications carrier served with
a government order can, with the click of a mouse, instantly transfer key
data along a computer circuit to an FBI technology office in Quantico.

The circuits -- little-known electronic connections between telecom firms
and FBI monitoring personnel around the country -- are used to tell the
government who is calling whom, along with the time and duration of a
conversation and even the locations of those involved.

Recently, three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
including Chairman John D. Dingell (Mich.), sent a letter to colleagues
citing privacy concerns over one of the Quantico circuits and demanding more
information about it. Anxieties about whether such electronic links are too
intrusive form a backdrop to the continuing congressional debate over
modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs
federal surveillance.

Since a 1994 law required telecoms to build electronic interception
capabilities into their systems, the FBI has created a network of links
between the nation's largest telephone and Internet firms and about 40 FBI
offices and Quantico, according to interviews and documents describing the
agency's Digital Collection System. The documents were obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a
nonprofit advocacy group in San Francisco that specializes in digital-rights
issues.

The bureau says its budget for the collection system increased from $30
million in 2007 to $40 million in 2008. Information lawfully collected by
the FBI from telecom firms can be shared with law enforcement and
intelligence-gathering partners, including the National Security Agency and
the CIA. Likewise, under guidelines approved by the attorney general or a
court, some intercept data gathered by intelligence agencies can be shared
with law enforcement agencies.

"When you're building something like this deeply into the telecommunications
infrastructure, when it becomes so technically easy to do, the only thing
that stands between legitimate use and abuse is the complete honesty of the
persons and agencies using it and the ability to have independent oversight
over the system's use," said Lauren Weinstein, a communications systems
engineer and co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, a group that
studies Web issues. "It's who watches the listeners."

Different versions of the system are used for criminal wiretaps and for
foreign intelligence investigations inside the United States. But each
allows authorized FBI agents and analysts, with point-and-click ease, to
receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other communications
that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where
he has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government
directive. Most of the wiretapping is done at field offices.

Wiretaps to obtain the content of a phone call or an e-mail must be
authorized by a court upon a showing of probable cause. But "transactional
data" about a communication -- from whom, to whom, how long it lasted -- can
be obtained by simply showing that it is relevant to an official probe,
including through an administrative subpoena known as a national security
letter (NSL). According to the Justice Department's inspector general, the
number of NSLs issued by the FBI soared from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in
2005.

The administration has proposed expanding the types of data it can get from
telecom carriers under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act, so FBI agents can gain faster and more detailed access to
information sent by wireless devices that reveals where a person is in real
time. The Federal Communications Commission is weighing the request.

"Court-authorized electronic surveillance is a critical tool in pursuing
both criminal and terrorist subjects," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.

A Justice Department spokesman said the government is asking only for
information at the beginning and end of a communication, and for information
"reasonably available" in a carrier's network.

Al Gidari, a telecom industry lawyer at Perkins Coie in Seattle who handles
wiretap orders for companies, said government officials now "have to rely on
a human being at a telecom calling up every 15 minutes to send law
enforcement the data."

He added: "What they want is an automatic feed, continuously. So you're
checking the weather on your mobile device or making a call," and the device
would transmit location data automatically. "It's full tracking capability.
It's a scary proposition."

In an affidavit circulated on Capitol Hill, security consultant Babak Pasdar
alleged that a telecom carrier he had worked for maintained a high-speed
DS-3 digital line that co-workers referred to as "the Quantico Circuit." He
said it allowed a third party "unfettered" access to the carrier's wireless
network, including billing records and customer data transmitted wirelessly.

He was hired to upgrade network security for Verizon in 2003; sources other
than Pasdar said the carrier in his affidavit is Verizon.

Dingell and his colleagues said House members should be given access to
information to help them evaluate Pasdar's allegations.

FBI officials said a circuit of the type described by Pasdar does not exist.
All telecom circuits at Quantico are one-way, from the carrier, said Anthony
Di Clemente, section chief of the FBI operational technology division. He
also said any transmissions of data to Quantico are strictly pursuant to
court orders.

Records, including who sent and received communications, the duration and
the time, are kept for evidentiary purposes and to support applications to
extend wiretap orders, he said.

Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said no government agency has open access to
the company's networks through electronic circuits.