Everyone knows that police can peek inside an email
account it if they have a paper search warrant


But cybercrime investigators are
frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing
companies these documents. They’re pushing for the creation of a national Web
interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers
so requests can be sent and received electronically.


A federal task force (soon to be released) study says that law
enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to
be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to
“exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process” through an
encrypted, police-only “nationwide computer network.”


The study also says: “89 percent of investigators agreed that a
nationwide computer network should be established for the purpose of linking
ISPs with law enforcement agencies so that they may exchange legal process
requests and responses to legal process. Authorized users would communicate
through encrypted virtual private networks in order to maintain the security of
the data.”


But the most controversial element is probably the private Web
interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially
in the wake of a recent inspector general’s report from the Justice Department.
The 289-page
report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans’ telephone records by citing
nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers
on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law.

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