Draft Report: Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System

Note: In this publicly available version of the IITRI draft, we have redacted Appendix D.2 through D.4, which contain a detailed description of the Carnivore software structure, and a clause in paragraph 3.4.4.1.1, which relates to operational methods. These redactions were made after preliminary internal review, and with a view toward making the vast majority of the draft publicly available as soon as possible. We are continuing to review the need for even these limited redactions. If we ultimately determine that they are not necessary, we will make the redacted material public.

This Draft Report from the IIT Research Institute (IITRI) is part of an overall review of the Carnivore system requested by the Attorney General. Over the next two weeks, the Department of Justice and the FBI will be providing IITRI with comments on their draft report. We also welcome comments concerning Carnivore from members of the technical community and from interested groups or members of the public. If the comments are technical, we will pass them on to IITRI. If they are non-technical, then the DOJ review panel will consider them.

Comments may be made by e-mail to Review.Panel@usdoj.gov. Comments may also be mailed to Carnivore Review Panel, U.S. Department of Justice, Room 1744, 950 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20530.

IITRI expects to provide DOJ with a final version of its review on December 8, so any technical comments must be received no later than December 1, 2000. Comments on non-technical issues should be received by the same date in order to get the most thorough possible consideration from the Department's internal review panel. That panel expects to present its final report to the Attorney General on or about December 20.