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Judge Upholds FBI Keyboard Sniffing
mshiltonj writes: "Wired is reporting that keyboard sniffing can be used to catch "mobsters." I feel safer already. You can read the ruling. Here's a snippet: "This case presents an interesting issue of first impression dealing with the ever-present tension between individual privacy and liberty rights and law enforcement's use of new and advanced technology to vigorously investigate criminal activity. It appears that no district court in the country has addressed a similar issue. Of course, the matter takes on added importance in light of recent events and potential national security implications." Translation: Don't deny us this tool or you'll be blamed for us not catching terrorists." See also an Infoworld article. We have several previous stories on the Scarfo case.
Those who are willing to sacrafice long term Freedom in exchange for the short term feeling of security will always ruin it for everyone.
Time to start using the movements of my eyes to signal changes on my computer
blink, blink, left, wink, blink, right, blink, squint
-Booyah
#include sig.h
Here are some excellent step-by-step instructions on securing Linux, Solaris, and NT.
The real danger here lies in how wiretapping is shifting from being an activity you need to actively monitor via an external resource, and is becoming a self-contained object you drop into the suspect's house and fetch later. The latter you only need a court order. The former you need a full warrant.
Until a judge figures out that loggers and tappers are basically the same thing with two different methods of planting and unplanting, this ruling will stick, unfortunately. And once voice recorders are small enough to be plantable devices without any active collection needed (or video recorders, or combination video and audio and keystroke and data packet sniffer and so on) then little black boxes can sneak into anyone's home on thin suspicion.
The FBI still had to obtain a search warrant. That means they have to go before a judge and show that there is probable cause (i.e. enough information available to convince a reasonable person) to believe that such a search will yield evidence of a crime. The FBI can't just do this willy-nilly. They have to get a judge's approval first.
The US has the concept of the citizen/soldier. Basically, the average citizen is required, when called, to provide for the common defense.
While police are not the military, they are still providing for that common defense. Why should anything be reserved to a government agency, and kep away from the people at alarge? Isn't this a government of the people, by the people, for the people? A lifetime membership oin the public beauraucracy [sorry for my spelling] is a frightening thing.
I'm starting to think the ancient Athenians had it right.
Public service there was should be involuntary, random , and short.
I am a former Military officer, so no need to tell me about military secrets and stuff like that. Far more of our offensive ability comes from our advanced manufacturing power than scientific advances on the US has. I've served my time, and have now returned to the (server) farm.
Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
How is using a particular OS going to protect you against a physical device that sniffs key strokes? (i.e. something between the keyboard cable and the CPU.) They're commerically available now.
Come on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. This is exactly how police surveillance should happen. A court order is still required. It is difficult to do on a large scale, at least when a physical key logger is used. It does not require people to use broken encryption. The problem starts when people are forbidden from verifying the integrity of their own computers.
bb
that I don't want the government brandishing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of the types that thinks everytime the government makes a new law or whatever that it is a bad thing. I simply feel that privacy is one of our most sacred freedoms.
If the government taps me accidentally instead of their intended target, and they discover me doing something that violates a law in a minor way, they are going to pursue getting a warrant so that they can use the information legitimately next time it happens. Point is they didn't have the right to tap me in the first place.
Second point is this. If I get tapped by accident (net-criminal spoofed my IP/connection details) and a third party hacker (i'm simplifying this.. i know i'll catch heat for using hacker)intercepts the signal, he may learn of information that puts me, my career, or my life in danger.. information that would not have leaked had it not been for the government adding a hole to my system. I doubt the government would compensate me if I lost my job for leaking trusted information to the web.
I'm all for anything that aids our law-enforcement officials, as long as they are responsible and take ownership of the consequences.
Making it mandatory for the government to notify you that you are being snooped defeats the purpose of the monitoring in the first place. A more suitable method would be allow concerned individuals email or call to request whether or not they are being snooped. Then if they ARE snooping you, and they have reason, they can ask you to see a local court to discuss the matter without actually stating that they ARE monitoring you. That is one faster way of getting the criminals into court, if they are foolish enough. It also protects the innocent. Of course if the government is 'accidentally' snooping you, they will just tell you "no, we aren't monitoring you" because they think they are monitoring the person spoofing your connection.
A better solution is a time-passworded utility that you can install and call to request the current password. The utility would check your system for the trojan. If that is the case, I'm all for this course of action against cyber-crime.
-fc
.
. echo -e \\04 >
While I have not (yet) seen equivalent products for USB on the market, sniffing USB is even easier than PS/2.
I'm sorry, I just get annoyed when people say things about which they have no idea. What part of sniffing USB is easier? The hardware would be much more complex. You have to identify which frames belong to the keyboard and not the printer, scanner, mouse etc. if you are using a hub. There's a lot more information to process and if you want to process it later, then you have to store a lot more. I don't see how it's any easier, actually its harder. PS/2 on the other hand is a very simple protocol, very simple hardware can process it.
If you were perhaps talking about the software level, you still have to hook into the keyboard drivers, the USB or PS/2 stuff is abstracted to the keyboard driver, so on that level they are about the same degree of difficulty. And actually, sniffing linux is pretty easy too, I'm sure the FBI could do it, granted they would have to recompile the kernel since the keyboard stuff is usually not a module, but very do-able...
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
They've set up military tribunals,
These are explicitly for non-US citizens caught abroad, trying to attack the US. US citizens aren't subject to them (they've got constitutional rights). Residents of the US aren't subject to them (the Supreme Court says that non-citizens who are residents of the US have constitutional rights). Stop being an idiot.
email/keyboard sniffing
This case was explicitly about a mafioso, so how is the terrorist excuse working here? Besides, WIRETAPS ARE LEGAL WITH A JUDGE'S PERMISSION. This is just the 21st century version of the wiretap. Stop being an idiot.
, hundreds of detnetions,
And every single detainee is either someone who has violated the law (overstaying their visas, for example) or who is a material witness who is likely to flee. Unless you know better, oh stupid one? This is the exact same thing that liberal icon Bobby Kennedy did when he started taking on the mob; if a reputed mafioso spit on the sidewalk, he would be arrested for violating public spitting laws (which exist to prevent the spread of disease). Was it OK for Bobby Kennedy to do? Did civilization collapse?
racial profiling
Note to moron: you would have to be willfully stupid to not wonder about a muslim booking a one-way ticket on a jumbo jet, taking no baggage. Idiots don't pay attention to patterns just because it's not politically correct. Oh, and the majority of American Blacks are in favor of racial profiling to prevent terror attacks, so you can assuage your white, upper-middle class guilt.
under this "terrorism" excuse.
Excuse? If you think this is a fucking excuse, please tell me where the Twin Towers went. Do you think they're on holiday in Paris?
Russia says the Chechyns are "terrorists."
The Chechens are terrorists. They blew up several apartment buildings in Russia two or three years ago. That's what prompted the renewal of the Chechen war. There had been a cease-fire for about a year until they started blowing up civilians in Russia. Sorry to let actual facts get in the way of your mindless diatribe.
China's calling Taiwan "terrorist,"
China is run by a group of evil people. They've been calling the Taiwanese whatever name seems to strike a nerve in the West. It's like Saddam calling the US/British no-fly zones "terrorist" or "criminal." When the evil ones call you names, you're doing well.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
I actually think the Scarfo case is a good thing. The logger was used in accordance with a court order, and the whole thing gives lie to the argument that we can't have readily available crypto because it makes the actual bad guys invulnerable to law enforcement.
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Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
>Whether this is what the law says or not really doesn't matter to whether or not it's true.
"Law" and "True" are perpendicular axes. The sumbitches are looking to stomp your ass with their jackboots, and you're scratching "true|false" in the sand. Big mistake. Hint: the guy with the spear wins.
The gentleman who lost a free and fair election to a dead man is getting even by stomping on your civil liberties. Won't make _that_ mistake twice, no sirree Dub.