[1659] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: USA Today on encryption; FBI's Louis Freeh responds
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marcus J. Ranum)
Sat Sep 27 17:02:18 1997
From: "Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr@nfr.net>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 15:01:24 +0000
Reply-to: mjr@nfr.net
In-reply-to: <1.5.4.32.19970927124817.00860f34@pop.pipeline.com>
> There are images of wiretap tables from the NRC report at:
http://jya.com/nrcd2.jpg
This is really interesting information. According to the
NRC, the average cost per wiretap order was $49,000.
I guess it's a good thing that they only did 1,154 of them.
$5.6million is serious money. 2,852 arrests were made
(arrests > taps?) leading to 772 convictions. The adjusted
average cost per conviction is then $73,200.
Another interesting statistic that falls from the NRC report
is the breakdown of reasons for the taps: 75% were drug
related. Child pornography and terrorism don't even appear
on the list, but if they fall under "other" that's only 7%.
66% of the taps were telephone taps. 18% were "electronic"
whatever that is. I used to live in a city with big drug
problems, and the dealer who lived on my street didn't
use crypto: he used a cordless phone. And they still
couldn't touch him (or didn't in 5 years anyhow).
Lastly, from 1984 to 1994, it seems they denied a total
of 7 wiretap requests. Out of a total (in that period) of
9,297. As a taxpayer, I wish they'd deny more. With the
average cost of a tap well over $30,000 that's closing
in on the $300million mark.
mjr.
-----
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