Comments on: Feds use keylogger to thwart PGP, Hushmail

Court case provides a rare glimpse into how some federal agents deal with encryption: by breaking into a suspect's office, implanting a keylogger and watching what happens from afar.

[tpkoons]

Clarification

The mirror port Declan speaks of is no more difficult with a dynamic IP. The mirror port copies the data from one physical port to another where the monitoring gear is. If the IP changes the physical port remains the same.

[qwerty75]

Physical port is an oxymoron.

There is nothing physical about a number

[scdecade]

Ok, this actually makes sense

Installing a tracking device on a suspected criminal after a search warrent has been approved. Huh! What a strange and mysterious concept. So after providing a reasonable argument for suspecting someone might be up to something nefarious, a judge approved this action and it was effective at monitoring encrypted computer usage. I just can't believe it. Wouldn't it be better to hire thousands of mindless beauracrats to monitor all internet traffic and then arrest anyone that tries to use encryption?

[richardishere]

Copy and paste

Just be compulsive with copy and paste. Cope articles and other material randomly so you fill up the logger.

[bobby_brady]

Wow, key logger, our government is high tech, LMOA

What a joke our government is.

[NYRBERRY]

Pushing legality

So had they copyrighted their data, wouldn't the DMCA cover this as illegal? Circumventing encryption... Hmm... Shady territory we get into here. As far as port mirroring... Just encrypt your traffic, it'll stick law enforcement back to installing a keylogger (as all little script kiddies already do)

[baike]

encryption myth

Its not shady at all. They got a warrant from a judge. It was a targeted investigtion with proper justification.

Also, encrypting information does not increase the privacy rights of the author. Individual vs. Government privacy rights are completely independent of the mechanisms of recording, securing, or sending. Its only about balancing the greater good and safety of the public against an individual's rights.

This is not new territory. Al Capone was arrested and convicted based on evidence from accounting logs that were 'encoded' to conceal the true nature of the information. The government needed to decrypt those logs before they were valuable evidence. But the fact they were written in code did not reduce in any way the government's authority to collect and use the information.

[SeizeCTRL]

Spooky!

Makes me want to start using Live Boot CDs or booting off USB drive.

Sounds like 1984 is arriving a tad later than expected.