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Judge Demands Details Of FBI's Keylogger

Posted by timothy on from the butchyer-honor-it's-a-secret dept.

wb8foz writes: "EPIC is reporting that Judge Politan has told the FBI to come up with details on the keystroke logger they used against Scarfo. Previously, the FBI claimed the technology was so Zuper-seKret that telling anyone how it worked would threaten 'national security'..."

1 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Not so fast by agentZ · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Before everybody gets too excited, the general public isn't going to see how the FBI did it just yet. From the Judge's Order regarding what the Government has to submit: "This material shall be submitted in camera and under seal. Upon review of the government's submission, the Court will then determine whether to reconsider the procedure for disclosure as outlined in this Letter Opinion and Order."

    This means that the Judge wants to see for himself exactly how the FBI device thing works. (The original government description was "gobbledegook".) From the rest of the order, however, it sounds to me like that the Judge does not believe a communications intercept has occured unless the FBI overheard Scarfo talking via a modem or other Internet connection.

    In other words, IMHO it appears that the Judge is actually leaning against Scarfo, but doesn't quite understand the technology enough to make a decision. Remember, the law very narrowly defines a "communication" when talking about wiretapping...