Is Carnivore a sophisticated new technology?
No. Carnivore is often portrayed in the press as something extremely technologically sophisticated and clever. It isn’t. It is technologically behind exis. For example, on news article claims that when the FBI unveiled Carnivore, it “astonished industry specialists”. It didn’t. There are numerous products on the market significantly more advanced than Carnivore. The author of this FAQ wrote an e-mail sniffing program identical to Carnivore 9 years ago. Carnivore has a couple of things that are unique to it (capturing e-mail packets rather than messages, RADIUS monitoring), but these aren’t necessarily sophisticated. The author of this FAQ wrote “Altivore” that is an exact duplicate of Carnivore in a weekend.
