From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young)
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 08:38:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: DEA Intercepts
Message-ID: <199607072119.VAA10773@pipe1.t2.usa.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Would anyone know more about the DEA "process the intercepts by computer"
in the excerpt below from today's Wash Post? Any connection to Peter
Neuman's remarks at the CRISIS press conference about LEA training and
technology as alternatives to breaking strong crypto? 
 
 
   This new funding has been a factor in making possible 
   increased use of electronic surveillance. Federal wiretaps 
   cost more than $70,000 a month to operate and generate 
   hundreds of hours of labor for monitors, transcribers, 
   surveillance teams and investigators. Larger budgets mean 
   cost is less of an obstacle. 
 
   Building for the future, the DEA is carrying out a $33 
   million program to replace single-line wiretapping gear 
   with new equipment that can monitor 40 lines simultaneously 
   and process the intercepts by computer. The FBI is plowing 
   millions into developing new intercept techniques for 
   digital lines and expanding its cadre of agents who use the 
   bureau's high tech surveillance gear. 
 
   "I don't think J. Edgar Hoover would contemplate what we 
   can do today in terms of technology," Reno testified during 
   a Senate hearing in May. 
 
   The total number of federal wiretaps is just one measure of 
   the rise in federal surveillance. The build-up also is 
   evident in the increased use of electronic devices that 
   record the numbers dialed by a target telephone, and the 
   origin of calls to it. 
 
   These devices allow agents to identify a person's 
   associates. Beginning in 1993, Justice agencies began using 
   the court-authorized monitors more often and leaving them 
   installed for longer periods of time, according to a 
   Justice Department report.