**

*spy tool*

*BY ROBERT CLARKE*

An independent US report has expressed concern that privacy of internal
corporate networks can be breached by powerful e-mail interception
Carnivore software being used by this Government’s Strategic
Intelligence Agency (SIA).

The agency is located on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.

A local Intelligence source also said no firewall (internal network
barrier) is safe from the type of equipment brought into T&T. This means
internal corporate networks can be breached and e-mails checked.

The SIA also has the ability to intercept faxes and tap phones. It
reports directly to the Security Council which is headed by the
politically-appointed Prime Minister. The Minister of National Security
also sits on the council.

Carnivore was part of a $61,032,741.10 shipment of intelligence
equipment received by the Prime Minister’s Office in September 2002,
from Ectel Ltd of Israel. The software is capable of grabbing all
e-mails within T&T containing keywords and combinations of keywords such
as “kidnap” and “prime minister”, sources said.

The 2000 report by the Illinois Institute of Technology, based on the
FBI’s use of the Carnivore software, was concerned the surveillance
system cannot trace a search action to a specific FBI technician.

The US report also said the surveillance equipment could be abused “to
grab more data than a court allows”.

Carnivore can only be used with a court order in the US.

However, the judiciary does not control its use in T&T.

The US House Judiciary Committee approved the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act in 2000, requiring law enforcement officials to obtain a
warrant before reading e-mail messages stored on a server.

Intelligence gathered by the SIA, while inadmissible in court, can be
used to build cases against criminals.

The source said making the SIA accountable to the Security Council was a
definite mistake since it leaves the system open to political manipulation.

He said the SIA should be an independent body which reports to the
President as Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

“It wouldn’t serve any purpose if it is being used as a political tool,”
he said.

He said, however, the SIA was “definitely good” at what it does — even
though agents sometimes get tied up with monitoring irrelevant phone
calls such as “who horning who”.

SIA employees have been sent on “Black Hat” (counter-hacking) courses in
the US.

UNC senators last week expressed concerns that their phones were being
tapped.

T&T’s two other intelligence agencies are the Ministry of National
Security’s Strategic Services Agency (SSA), based in Port-of-Spain, and
Special Branch’s Intelligence Unit