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Keystroke Logger Faces Federal Wiretap Charges
securitas writes "In what prosecutors say is the first case of its kind, a former insurance claims manager was indicted on federal wiretapping charges for allegedly installing a keystroke logger on another employee's computer. The device was secretly installed 'on a PC used by a secretary to senior executives at Bristol West Insurance Group.' Reuters reports that the man, who had been fired, was gathering information for a class action lawsuit against his former employer. SecurityFocus interviews would-be keystroke logger user Larry Lee Ropp who reportedly installed the KEYKatcher device on the PC."
From http://www.keykatcher.com/testimonials/index.html
"I must thank you for this great invention. Early this year, I discovered my 14-year-old daughter was on the ICQ with a person with a name of "P****". I was shocked and did not know what to do. I then e-mailed the editor of Parent and Child and they reccommended me to do a search on the internet. I was very fortunate to have purchased a KEYKatcher. The ability to read my daughter's e-mail has helped us to make the right decision about the school she would attend last September..."
I mean, is there any useful use for this device at all?
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
When is the last time you remember hearing about an indictment for actual wiretapping? Doesn't it seem like people get away with wiretapping regularly? I'm thinking about things like the illegally recorded phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky. Or does the law specify exemption if it is done for a good cause?
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A keyboard is a two way communication device. The inputs are the keys you press, and the outputs are the num lock/caps lock and scroll lock lights. In theory, you could use a keyboard to communicate with another person using Morse code with the space bar to send and the num lock light to receive them.
For the feds, that's the problem with this whole thing. If they go after the guy for illegal wiretapping, they admit that this sort of thing is wiretapping. Then they have to abide by their own rules for wiretapping when they decide to do this kind of thing.
I personally hope that this goes through, if only because it'll make the feds play nice, or let us do something about it when they won't.
We had a consultant (former employee) work at a branch office. The owner said to keep an eye on them. I want to the branch office and told every employee that I was installing a keyboard logger and why. When the consultant (former employee) logged on, they had no idea they were being tracked. I discovered they had a back door account and were logging into a supervisor account. Good or bad, I discovered the holes in my system.
so when is the disclaimer going up at thinkgeek?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a05/
disclaimer: please do not buy this product and use it for what you think you were going to use it for, thank you... same with that x10 camera you were thinking about too, while we're at it
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So we've got this guy working for an insurance company who decides to inform the Dept. of Insurance that they are cancelling policies unlawfully. This is a good thing and brave of him to do it. Hopefully his motivations were purely good and not just because he was pissed he didn't get a raise last year or something.
And let's face it, insurance companies are the some of the worst kinds of organizations in corporate America. They collect huge sums of money via premiums - that are based in people's fear that something terrible could happen. And then as soon as you need them (you have an accident, someone in your family gets ill, etc.), they immediately initate every effort to not pay you in your time of need. I know it's how they do business, but it's a disgrace. I have experienced this first hand more than once ...
Back to the story, the guy then plants a keystroke logger on a secretary's PC in order to collect further info for his crusade and to aid lawyers in a class action suit against his company. He obviously crossed a line here. And in the middle of this, he finds himself fired (curious). So he asks a former co-worker to retrieve the logger for him? And of course being a good insurance company employee, she rats him out.
I applaud his intentions, if they were indeed based in fairness and the public good. He did get carried away for sure by planting the bug. But I can't believe the stupidity of (1) admitting he planted it to a former co-worker and (2) expecting her to help him retrieve it and f--k the company she still worked for. I guess he really was a bit of a dreamer ...
Why do I get the impression that this article specifically avoids mentioning software keyloggers? Whether or not they're currently illegal under the law shouldn't they be?
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
Aint that a bitch.
I was just thinking last year how stupid these insurance companies were for always sending cancellation notice as opposed to a bill. (I live in Michigan.) So when I actually get a cancellation notice I don't know if its simply a bill, or an actual cancellation notice.
I have never received a bill from an insurance company, only cancellation notices, and I've been with at least 5 different ones. What more info is needed? we know they do this.
For those who didnt RTFA, Ropp was trying to get the list of people who they pulled this fast one on, from the companies password protected (DMCA anyone?) database.
More power to you Ropp. If the government mandates one must buy something, that thing should be heavily regulated by the government. racket.
I was working for the President of a company who seemed to have information about others that left me wondering. So, I ran a program, (I believe it was Spycop), to scan for anything nefarious on my computer. Nothing found, fortunately.
However I shared this program with a colleague and she ran it and found a keylogger that would send emails from her company laptop, to a blind email account. He apparently had a thing for her roomate, a former employee, and was using this to spy.
My colleague was shocked that this would happen, but as it appeared to have been non-functional for a while due to internet login issues, she didn't say anything, and I told her what to delete to kill the program from running.
That way, any deletion of the software could at least appear to be accidental.
Yes,
For those that don't know...
In New York federal investigators used a search warrant to physically alter Scarfo's computer to install a hardware keyboard logger so that they could retrieve his pgp passwords This search warrant was a sneek and peek. They then went back in a month and took the computer on another search warrant.
At no time did they have a wiretap warrant, they claimed that they didn't need one. This case seems like they are contradicting themselves in several ways. By prosecuting this grey hat, they may be giving Scarfo grounds for an appeal of his conviction based on the fact that the evidence was tainted.
The reason this is important is that the requirements are more stringent for a wiretap warrant then for a search warrant, if they had had proper evidence they would have use it to get a wiretap, but they didn't.
I recently got fired from an electronics engineering company in the town of Pullman, WA. I feel like I was treated unfairly, in that I was fired because I agreed to an electronic use policy that stated that the computer I used and anything send from it was able to be monitored. About 11 months ago, I broke up with my girlfriend. I really loved the girl, and hoped to clear up misunderstandings that led to the breakup. However, as these things go, sometimes the prettiest of comments are not said to one another. She said some things I don't think any person should hear. Sadly, and I'm not proud of it at all, I said some things back (of course wanting to uphold my pride, not really thinking that at the time I was only shooting myself in the foot, not only with what little was left of our relationship, but the fact that I was doing it from a company computer). About 3 weeks ago, my hard drive failed. I called our IS department, who came out to deliver a new drive. I erased the old one after I had transfered my files off it. Shortly therafter, they came to pick it up, saying they didn't want it to get into circulation again since it was damaged. Someone must have been thouroughly bored and decided to start a little investigation of my personal data by reconstructing what was on the drive. (Although I deleted files, I didn't reformat...my bad). Shortly after dropping off the old drive, I was told I was fired, because the company had viewed conversations to my ex that were automatically logged by MSN messenger. I'm still quite perterbed that they pulled this out almost a year after it happened. Also, the point was brought up...what gives them the right to monitor a computer, whether they own it or not, when they certainly can't do that with a phone?! How much of our lives are to remain ours, and private when we go to work? The reason they gave was that it put the "company's servers at risk". Hmm. Okay. Obviosuly not that much if nothing has happened, and it's been a year. I wrote the owner of the company, who I greatly respected, who handed it back to the HR department, who verified that they would not re-hire me, despite my personal life issues that led me to do this. On one hand, I see their point in not re-hiring, in that if you do it for one, you give grounds to have to do it for all. From another though, does this stink a little of improper HR and IT practices to anyone but me? -J