U.S. law provides a number of mechanisms for government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to monitor, capture, and review a company’s outgoing and incoming Internet activity and communications. Depending on the particular circumstances and nature of the investigation, the government may be able to obtain this information through a grand jury subpoena,1 a wiretap order,2 an order pursuant to Section 215 of the U.S. Patriot Act,3 a National Security letter,4 or an order from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as permitted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.5
Increasingly, however, the FBI and other government agencies have been bypassing these legal structures and requirements and simply approaching corporations directly with a request to install a device onto corporate Internet servers permitting the agency to monitor, on a “real-time” basis, information transmitted via the Internet to and from a company’s computer systems. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that the FBI has used this strategy on many occasions with varying degrees of success.
