May 25th, 2012 by ElizaP

CNET has just learned that the FBI has formed a new surveillance unit which will be responsible for the invention of technology that makes it easier for law enforcement to listen in on internet communications. Based in Quantico, Virginia, the Domestic Communications Assistance Center has a mandate which includes everything from the building of custom wiretap hardware to the decoding of conversations which occur over Skype. And it appears that transparency is not high on the list of the new DCAC, which refused to reveal who was running it and has remained quite secretive about its creation. It was only though the piecing together of information found in government documents, along with interviews that the creation of this new unit was discovered. The lack of transparency has not gone unnoticed by organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says that there is no reason for the FBI to be so secretive about the inner workings of the program.