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Judge Demands Details Of FBI's Keylogger
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'..."
It sounds to me like they just gave the judge a bunch of keycodes, and the judge doesn't understand how to go from keycodes to keys.
Once the FBI gives the judge a table of keycodes -> keys, I suspect the judge's "gobbledegook" comment will be answered. Now, the question is, will the judge accept the keystroke recorder as a part of a valid search warrent, or will the judge interpret the device to be a "listening device".
Remember, the whole danger of this device is not that it exists, it is that the FBI went in on a search warrent, and left a listening device behind which should require a wiretap order.
www.eFax.com are spammers
most likely. The FBI probably doesn't want to admit in open court that some guy walked a couple of blocks away to "Spys-R-Us" and bought an off-the-shelf keyboard logger at 5 X retail price. It would be laughable if they weren't dead serious to hide this....
The Government's penchant to hide everthing they do from the citizenry is insidious. How about requiring the President to personally sign each and every individual page of every single "National Security" classified document. That would certainly help cut down this effrontery of abuse, eventually. Classification by default is an insult to the intelligence and political franchise of the American people!
When are people going to get angry about being lied to and abused in the name of holy national security? The Cold War has been over for a long time now. Is this a police state or a republic? Can anyone tell the difference anymore? Please tell me; I really do care.
The way I see it, the keylogger could either be a software or hardware device. It may require that an agent break into the Bad Guy's premises to install the bug. Then again it may not...
If it was a software device, it would probably be some sort of virus or trojan horse that would sit silently & log keystrokes, and transmit them to the FBI at periodic intervals. There are the issues of compatibility - there are over a dozen different varieties of Windows in general use, as well as Linux, BeOS, BSD, etc. That would require multiple versions of the software, all carefully crafted to hide itself from anyone from a casual luser to an experienced computer security expert (what the FBI likes to refer to as a "hacker".) Somewhere along the line it would probably be detected and deactivated.
The hardware approach has the advantage of being OS neutral, and there are only a few varieties of keyboard interfaces that need to be handled. The device could be hidden inside the keyboard, which would require the agent to physically disassemble the keyboard to install the device. This would take a lot of time, and have several risks: The agent could be caught in the act, which is made more likely by the extra time taking the keyboard apart. Also, the agent could break the keyboard, which would make the Bad Guys aware that something suspicious was happening.
Putting the device inside the computer would be easier - most computers are designed to be opened & serviced with little more than a screwdriver. However, the agent still has to spend time disassembling & reassembling equipment, with risk of breaking the computer or being caught and subject to Great Unpleasantness. Putting the bug outside of the computer (glued to the underside of the desk or attached to a cable) would be too easy to detect, especially when dealing with Evil Russian Hackerz(TM).
The best way would be to use a bakery van full of TEMPEST gear to listen to the stray signals coming from the computer. The gear would be able to listen to keystrokes, as well as record everything that is displayed on the computer's screen. I suspect the feds don't want this revealed because then the Bad Guys could send thugs to kill the agents in the van, then they would be able to play with all the neat toys inside and come up with countermeasures.
Meldroc, Waster of Electrons
But I'm getting the impression that's not possible. Which should tell you a lot.
I don't know about the exact adapter the FBI was using, but I have researched keyboards for emulation projects (hacking a keyboard to get many possible inputs, etc).
Most keyboards have a "grid" made of two rows of wires, to simply put it, a horizontal row, and a vertical row (which isn't exactly true, but is very close to how it works). When you press a button, you close the circuit between one of the vertical rows and one of the horizontal rows. Now this is sent to a small circuit in the keyboard that is basically a decoder chip, that tranfers the specific horizontal row/vertical row combination into a key. This small circuit is usually on a circuit board, and is custom to each type of keyboard. So far, we are finding it difficult to put a keystroke logger into the keyboard. However, the decoder circuit is hooked up to the cable that sends it to the computer. There are either 5 or 6 wires used (I believe 5, one is extra), and there is enough space inside most motherboards that it would be possible to put a small circuit in it. All you need to do is to tap into the wires inside of the keyboard and you have a bug that can install in a few minutes, and is undetectable unless you take the keyboard apart.
Then again, I see other posters talking about an adapter that fits on the end of the plug, in the back of the computer, which would work, but is an inelegant, and very easily found solution. Inside the computer would work also, but would have to interface to the back of the ps/2 adapter, or to motherboard traces, and I'm guessing the grounded case would hinder transmissions of signals. OTOH, cases are easier to take apart, and there is usually a lot more space.