True to the tradition of wanton disregard for law in the Bush administration these past seven plus years, several Federal law enforcement agencies have been busy breaking laws they’re supposed to enforce. Several examples of Federal Law Enforcement run amok can be found below.
Surveillance Superhighway Leads To Quantico
Wired.com is reporting that a U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia has direct high-speed access — a 45 megabit/second DS-3 line — to a major wireless carrier’s systems, exposing customers’ voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003.
Babak Pasdar, CTO of New Jersey-based IGXglobal told Wired that he thought it was alarming how the carrier ended up essentially giving a third party outside of their organization unfettered access to their environment. When Pasdar suggested putting access securiy controls around it, the carrier vehemently denied it. Pasdar wouldn’t name the wireless carrier.
Pasdar executed a seven page affidavit for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project in Washington, which circulated the document (PDF) along with other talking points to congressional staffers, currently working on legislation regarding retroactive immunity to phone companies.