mytrip writes "Once again, supposedly sensitive information blacked out from a government report turns out to be visible by computer experts armed with the Ctrl+C keys — and that information turns out to be not very sensitive after all.
Simply highlighting the redacted columns in this table from an Inspector General report reveals some very un-sensitive information.
Image: Justice Department Inspector General Report
This time around, University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze discovered that the Justice Department's Inspector General's office had failed to adequately obfuscate data in a March report (.pdf) about FBI payments to telecoms to make their legacy phone switches comply with 1995 wiretapping rules. That report detailed how the FBI had finished spending its allotted $500 million to help telephone companies retrofit their old switches to make them compliant with the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act or Calea — even as federal wiretaps target cellphones more than 90 percent of the time.
Some of the tidbits considered too sensitive to be aired publicly?
The FBI paid Verizon $2500 a piece to upgrade 1,140 old telephone switches. Oddly the report didn't redact the total amount paid to the telecom — slightly more than $2.9 million dollars — but somehow the bad guys will win if they knew the number of switches and the cost paid.
FBI survey results about wiretaps could also be found hidden under the redaction layer." Link to Original Source
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In the USA you still only have to do the math on the 'number' and 'quality' of roving witetaps.
In India you have to count the number of dead.
"The records show that Durgiyana Mandir ground was one of three cremation sites in Amritsar illegally used by the police. It takes about 300kg of wood to burn a single body and each wood purchase is written in a register. The police subverted the system, by burning more than one body on each pyre.
Be happy its still number of switches (Score:2)
In India you have to count the number of dead.
"The records show that Durgiyana Mandir ground was one of three cremation sites in Amritsar
illegally used by the police.
It takes about 300kg of wood to burn a single body and each wood purchase is written in a register.
The police subverted the system, by burning more than one body on each pyre.
http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/india__who_killed_the_sikhs_130052 [sbs.com.au]