Michael Riconosciuto, PROMIS

[Steve Thompson]

 --- Neil Johnson <njohnsn at njohnsn.com> wrote: 
> On Sun, 2004-12-05 at 20:58 -0500, Steve Thompson wrote:
> >[PROMIS]
> Yes, I have found that puzzling too.
> 
> Articles I have read refer to the original version being "in the public
> domain". You'd think the source code would be "out there" somewhere.

If that's true, then the government couldn't have stolen it.  However, I
suspect that mainfraim code of any sophistication is rarely released into
the public domain.  I imagine the author would be able to clear that up,
assuming he has no financial reason to falsify its history.
 
> The least "Tin Foil Hat (TM)" version of the story I found is at Wired
> 
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.01/inslaw.html
> 
> Which gives this description:
> 
> "Designed as case-management software for federal prosecutors, PROMIS
> has the ability to combine disparate databases, and to track people by
> their involvement with the legal system. Hamilton and others now claim
> that the DOJ has modified PROMIS to monitor intelligence operations,
> agents and targets, instead of legal cases."

Interesting.
 
> I find the claims made about this software (it's ability to reconcile
> data from many different sources "automagically" ) pretty vague and
> frankly, a little far fetched, based on what I know about software,
> databases, etc.

No kidding.  Databases are _hard_ to write efficiently, let alone to
arbitrarily integrate.
 
> (And that's not even including the "modifications" supposedly made to
> install a TEMPEST back door in later versions).

Perhaps I am stupid.  I don't know how one would go about modifying
application software to include a 'back door' that would presumably
enhance its suceptibility to TEMPEST attacks.  Isn't tempest all about EM
spectrum signal detection and capture?
 

Regards,

Steve


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