Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 10:37:26 -0500
To: politech@politechbot.com
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: FC: Norway military and police preparing secret Carnivore system
Cc: pcs@digitoday.no


*********

From: "per christian k stokke" <pcs@digitoday.no>
Subject: Norwegian Carnivore / surveillance controversy
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 16:26:42 +0100

Norwegian Carnivore controversy

Norwegian military and police intelligence units have entered into a secret
internet surveillance cooperation with
the country's top 15 companies - keeping the national assembly in the dark.

Norway got its own Carnivore controversy Friday, as news service
digitoday.no revealed an Internet surveillance network, the result of a
clandestine cooperation between
military and police surveillance units and Norway's top 15 companies.

News of the project, which is said to be set up to defend national IT
infrastructure from cracking and DoS-attacks, spurred demands for review of
the project from politicians in the Norwegian parliament.

Intelligence honchos confirm that there are plans and talks, but refuse to
go into detail.

"It would be irresponsible of us not to do whatever necessary to describe
any potential threat", said Olav Aune, director of operations at the
Norwegian Defence Intelligence Service (FO/E).
[http://www.fo.mil.no/etterretningsstab/index.html ]
Aune wouldn't comment as to how far in the process they are, but confirmed
that there is a cooperation between military and police intelligence and the
big 15, adding: "I prefer to call it an 'early warning' system".

A source closely involved in setting up the system claims that it's
operational but not yet implemented for large-scale surveillance.

The system consists of network surveillance tools that can reveal unusual
patterns of traffic as well as identify known security threats like trojans
and backdoors based on their 'signatures', much like common anti-virus
software. But such systems can be set up to tap into the bitstream and check
almost anything, according to security sources - just as FBIs controvercial
Carnivore.

Arne Tjemsland, managing director of one of Norway's leading security
companies Sikkerhets Systemer (Security Systems) said that their system
could run checks on all types of content, but that there are a few
limitations, both technical and legal. Sikkerhets Systemer is a defence
contractor, and has delivered similar surveillance systems to both public
institutions and companies.

Police intelligence unit POT [www.pot.no] will issue a press release next
week, according to a spokesperson in the defence department.

The Justice Department late today (norwegian time) confirmed the existence
of the cooperation. A press release calls the system VDI, saying its an
intrusion detection system that can't and won't be used to identify
attackers.

Former prime minister and leader of the government-appointed
'Vulnerabilities Committee' K=E5re Willoch said he didn't know of the
initiative until early this week, but lends his support to such security
measures on a general basis.


Articles:
http://www.digitoday.no/dtno.nsf/wframe/mainstory (in norwegian)
Translation tool available here (does, admittedly, produce some very strange
results at times...)
http://www.translation-experts.com/intert.htm

Call Justice Department press officer Bjorn Tal=E9n, tlf +47 22 24 51 09
or me (journalist Per Christian Stokke) at 47 982 16 685 for details.

Regards,

per christian k stokke
reporter   digitoday.no
per.christian.stokke@digitoday.no
http://digitoday.no
+47 23 08 06 85   +47 982 16 685




- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------


------- End of Forwarded Message