CDT joins the nation in grief and anger over the devastating loss of life resulting from the terrorist hijackings and attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Responding to these attacks and the threat of future ones will test - as it has not been tested in many years -- our collective resolve to maintain the freedom, openness and diversity that so enriches and defines our society. CDT believes that surrendering freedom will not purchase security, that democratic values are strengths not weaknesses, and that open communications networks are a positive force in the fight against violence and intolerance. More

In order to monitor Internet transmissions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation created Carnivore. As an object placed on an ISP's network, Carnivore has access to a wide range of communications. CDT has pushed for a review of the technology by an independent group of technology experts in order to find out exactly what Carnivore does. CDT is also working on a legal analysis to determine whether Carnivore is within the bounds of Fourth Amendment protections. More

Major infrastructres deemed critical to the national security and the essential functioning of the U.S. economy - telecommunications, transportation, water supply, oil and gas production, banking and finance, electrical generation, emergency services and essential government functions are dependent on information systems that are vulnerable to cyber attack. Proposals to protect these critical systems, however, threaten to bring government intervention in private networks, design mandates and privacy invasions. More

Realizing that computer systems owned by the federal government were susceptible to hacker attacks, the White House proposed to build a monitoring system that would watch these critical computers. The resulting plan, FIDNet, combines artifical intelligence computer programs and human analysis of electronic transmissions. Not only are there serious privacy concerns stemming from the surveillance mechanism necessary to complete this plan, but it remains questionable whether intrusion detection is really effective enough to have such a central role in government computer security. More

Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures is a right that Americans have enjoyed for over two hundred years. The Cyberspace Electronic Security Act (CESA) proposed by the Clinton Administration in the name of fighting cybercrime falls short of the Constitutional protections. More

Internet companies frequently report problems with their networks because hackers continue to launch denial of service attacks. For example, hacker can stop all traffic to a web site by using a number of computers to simultaneously send data to it, overloading the system and thus blocking access to the site. Concerns over these attacks have led to over-reaching and potentially damaging proposed plans of action from Congress and the White House. CDT endeavors to find a solution to the problem that not only enhances the security of computer networks but also protects individual privacy and rights. More

The Clinton Administration has asked Congress to expand the reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and to amend the laws governing electronic surveillance to increase some privacy protections but also to expand surveillance powers. The Clinton bill was introduced in the Senate as S. 3083, but it has not moved. A separate bill S. 2448, incorporating some of the changes sought by the Administration, was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but in a scaled-back version. More.

Several international initiatives on cyber-crime raise concerns for Internet freedom and threaten to result in government mandates on industry. One effort is being undertaken by the Council of Europe, which is drafting a treaty on computer crime. The Group of Eight (G-8 - the seven major industrial nations plus Russia) have been discussing cyber-crime at the ministerial level. More