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                Date: 2000-12-08
                 
                 
                NO: Carnivore, Dienste & Polizei
                
                 
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      Allüberall dasselbe Bild: Nachrichtendienste & Polizei  
agieren gemeinsam im Dienste der "nationalen Sicherheit". 
 
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From: "per christian k stokke" <pcs@digitoday.no> Subject:  
Norwegian Carnivore / surveillance controversy Date: Fri, 8  
Dec 2000 16:26:42 via Fri, 08 Dec 2000 10:37:26 -0500 To: 	 
politech@politechbot.com and Declan McCullagh  
 
Norwegian Carnivore controversy 
 
Norwegian military and police intelligence units have entered  
into a secret internet surveillance cooperation with the  
country's top 15 companies - keeping the national assembly  
in the dark. 
 
Norway got its own Carnivore controversy Friday, as news  
service digitoday.no revealed an Internet surveillance network,  
the result of a clandestine cooperation between military and  
police surveillance units and Norway's top 15 companies. 
 
News of the project, which is said to be set up to defend  
national IT infrastructure from cracking and DoS-attacks,  
spurred demands for review of the project from politicians in  
the Norwegian parliament. 
 
Intelligence honchos confirm that there are plans and talks,  
but refuse to go into detail. 
 
"It would be irresponsible of us not to do whatever necessary  
to describe any potential threat", said Olav Aune, director of  
operations at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence Service  
(FO/E). [http://www.fo.mil.no/etterretningsstab/index.html ]  
Aune wouldn't comment as to how far in the process they  
are, but confirmed that there is a cooperation between  
military and police intelligence and the big 15, adding: "I  
prefer to call it an 'early warning' system". 
 
A source closely involved in setting up the system claims  
that it's operational but not yet implemented for large-scale  
surveillance. 
 
The system consists of network surveillance tools that can  
reveal unusual patterns of traffic as well as identify known  
security threats like trojans and backdoors based on their  
'signatures', much like common anti-virus software. But such  
systems can be set up to tap into the bitstream and check  
almost anything, according to security sources - just as FBIs  
controvercial Carnivore. 
 
Arne Tjemsland, managing director of one of Norway's  
leading security companies Sikkerhets Systemer (Security  
Systems) said that their system could run checks on all  
types of content, but that there are a few limitations, both  
technical and legal. Sikkerhets Systemer is a defence  
contractor, and has delivered similar surveillance systems to  
both public institutions and companies. 
 
Police intelligence unit POT [www.pot.no] will issue a press  
release next week, according to a spokesperson in the  
defence department. 
 
The Justice Department late today (norwegian time)  
confirmed the existence of the cooperation. A press release  
calls the system VDI, saying its an intrusion detection  
system that can't and won't be used to identify attackers. 
 
Former prime minister and leader of the government- 
appointed 'Vulnerabilities Committee' Kåre Willoch said he  
didn't know of the initiative until early this week, but lends his  
support to such security measures on a general basis. 
 
 
Articles: http://www.digitoday.no/dtno.nsf/wframe/mainstory  
(in norwegian) Translation tool available here (does,  
admittedly, produce some very strange results at times...)  
http://www.translation-experts.com/intert.htm
                   
 
Call Justice Department press officer Bjorn Talén, tlf +47 22  
24 51 09 or me (journalist Per Christian Stokke) at 47 982 16  
685 for details. 
 
Regards, 
 
per christian k stokke reporter digitoday.no  
per.christian.stokke@digitoday.no http://digitoday.no +47 23  
08 06 85 +47 982 16 685 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2000-12-08 
comments to office@quintessenz.at
                   
                  
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