The Clinton administration said Thursday it would conduct a legal review of the privacy implications of a planned computer network surveillance system that has drawn fire from civil liberties groups.
The planned system, known as the Federal Intrusion Detection Network or FIDNET, would monitor government computer systems to detect unauthorized break-in attempts by hackers.
Civil liberties groups denounced the plan Wednesday after a draft proposal dismissed privacy concerns and said the system was intended eventually to include monitoring of private-sector computers.
John Tritak, director of the administration's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, said Thursday the FIDNET plan had not been approved by President Clinton and was still undergoing legal review by the Justice Department and the White House's chief counselor for privacy, Peter Swire.
"This legal review is still underway," Tritak said, after being asked about FIDNET at a hearing of the Senate's Special Committee on the Year 2000. "It's very likely, or should I say possible, that the implementation of any of the features in that program will be shaped and determined by those reviews."
Tritak said privacy protection was a "paramount concern" in designing the program.
Civil liberties groups that have criticized the program welcomed the review but remained wary.
"We hope it will truly be a thorough investigation and that they will involve privacy groups," said Ari Schwartz, policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The Washington nonprofit first obtained the FIDNET draft and distributed the document on its Web site.
"The draft we received made no mention of a privacy review and civil liberties were brushed off," Schwartz added.
At the hearing, an FBI official denied FIDNET was intended to monitor nongovernmental computers.
"That's not at all true," said Michael Vatis, director of the bureau's National Infrastructure Protection Center. "The system that is being considered right now is to monitor illegal intrusions into federal government systems."
CDT's Schwartz said the draft monitoring plan discussed linking the FIDNET to key private sector systems through voluntary agreements with companies in the telecommunications, financial, and other sectors. Raw data from all monitoring would be provided to the FBI, he said.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
