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5.1 KiB
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Subject: Wiretap loophole concerns.
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From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow <Geoff @ SRI-CSL>
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TAP 2takes (EXCLUSIVE: 10 p.m. EST Embargo) A
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Loophole Raises Concern About Privacy in Computer Age By DAVID BURNHAM
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c. N.Y. Times News Service
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WASHINGTON - Telecommunications experts are expressing concern
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that the federal wiretap law does not make it a crime for anyone,
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whether private citizen, law enforcement officer or foreign spy, to
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intercept the millions of messages transmitted around the United
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States each day by computer.
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The experts, who are in Congress, the American Telephone and
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Telegraph Co., and the American Civil Liberties Union, say the
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importance of the loophole in the 1968 law has been greatly magnified
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in recent years with the increasing use of computers for storing and
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transmitting personal, business, and government information.
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Three congressional panels are considering whether the law should
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be rewritten to reflect the computer age. A major concern, both in
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Congress and among the experts, is whether the loophole gives local,
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state, and federal law enforcement officers an opportunity to conduct
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computerized electronic surveillance without the court approval
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required for wiretaps.
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There is no evidence of widespread exploitation of the law by
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officers. But John Shattock, director of the national office of the
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civil liberties union, said: "The issue here is the privacy of
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communications against secret government surveillance. The threat here
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truly is Big Brother, not a group of little kids."
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Some fear that any change in the current law, unless it is done
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carefully, could inadvertently increase or decrease the power of law
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enforcement officers.
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The wiretap law forbids the monitoring of conversations except for
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law enforcement officers who have obtained a warrant from a judge. In
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the age of the computer, however, more and more messages, including
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those expressed by the human voice, are broken down into "digital
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bits" in their transmission.
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But because of the way the 1968 law is written, the interception
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of these bits is not a crime and the police are free to intercept them
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without warrants.
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Most electronic surveillance is passive, making it impossible to
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measure how much the loophole is being exploited, whether by the
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authorities, by industrial spies, by organized crime figures trying to
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make a killing in the stock market, by international spies seeking
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government data, or by curious individuals with a personal computer.
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But in recent months a number of computerized data banks in
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government and industry have become the targets of long-distance
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telephone attacks by amateur computer experts working from their home
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computers. In addition, indictments have charged foreign computer
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concerns with attempting to purchase sensitive details about the
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products of American companies.
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More seriously, p1years ago the Carter
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administration announced that it believed the Soviet Union was using
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antennas believed to have been set up on its grounds in Washington,
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New York, and San Francisco to intercept digital information being
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transmitted in microwaves by businesses and government agencies.
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The Carter administration took limited technical steps to prevent
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the Russians from obtaining sensitive government data and ordered the
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National Security Agency to help private corporations improve their
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security. But it never took any formal legal action against the
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Russians or formally asked Congress to amend the law.
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H.W. William Caming oversees privacy and corporate security
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matters at AT&T. "As we enter the year made famous by George Orwell's
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book, 'Nineteen-Eighty-four,' computer crime is on the rise and may
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well constitute a major crime threat of the 1980s," he said in a
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recent interview. "We therefore are encouraged by and vigorously
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support current efforts in Congress and the states to enact suitable
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legislation concerning computer crime. We believe that such
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legislation should include provisions making it a crime to secretly
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intercept non-voice communications."
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AT&T is not the only company concerned about the wiretap law. In
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response to an inquiry, Satellite Business Systems, a major new data
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communications company jointly owned by International Business
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Machines, the Aetna Life and Casualty Co., and Comsat, agreed that
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some experts believed there was a "potential loophole" in current
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law and that, to the extent this was so, "legislation to make clear
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that such unauthorized interception is prohibited would be useful."
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The 1968 wiretap law makes it a federal felony for a third party
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to intercept the conversations of others by placing an electronic
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listening device, or a "bug," in a telephone or other place such as
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an office.
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The only exception is that federal, state, and local law
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enforcement officers may use wiretaps in the investigation of certain
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crimes but only with the approval of the senior prosecutor of a
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particular jurisdiction and a special warrant from a judge.
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The law does not apply to computer tapping
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