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                Date: 2001-08-07
                 
                 
                US: Keystroke Logging als Geheimnis
                
                 
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      Wie das Logging von Tastaturanschlägen funktioniert, mag das US- 
Ministerium für Justiz nicht verraten: wieder einmal steht hier die  
nationale Sicherheit auf dem Spiel. 
 
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By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 2:00 a.m. Aug. 7, 2001  
PDT 
 
The U.S. government has invoked national security to argue that  
details of a new electronic surveillance technique must remain  
secret. 
 
Justice Department attorneys told a federal judge overseeing the  
prosecution of an alleged mobster that public disclosure of a  
classified keystroke logger would imperil ongoing investigations of  
"foreign intelligence agents" and endanger the lives of U.S. agents. 
 
In court documents (PDF) filed Friday, the Justice Department  
claims that such stringent secrecy is necessary to prevent "hostile  
intelligence officers" from employing "counter-surveillance tactics to  
thwart law enforcement." 
 
[...] 
 
Donald Kerr, the director of the FBI's lab, said in an affidavit filed  
Friday that "there are only a limited number of effective techniques  
available to the FBI to cope with encrypted data, one of which is  
the 'key logger system.'" He said that if criminals find out how the  
logger works, they can readily circumvent it. 
 
The feds believe so strongly in keeping this information secret that  
they've said they may invoke the Classified Information Procedures  
Act if necessary. The 1980 law says that the government may say  
that evidence requires "protection against unauthorized disclosure  
for reasons of national security." 
 
If that happens, not only are observers barred from the courtroom,  
but the trial could move to a classified location. Federal regulations  
say that if a courtroom is not sufficiently secure, "the court shall  
designate the facilities of another United States Government  
agency" as the location for the trial. 
 
But the FBI's Kerr said that CIPA's extreme procedures aren't good  
enough. Says Kerr: "Even disclosure under the protection of the  
court ... cannot guarantee that the technique will not be  
compromised.... To assume otherwise may well lead to the  
compromise of criminal and national security investigations, and, in  
some cases, threaten the lives of FBI or other government agency  
personnel."  
 
Mehr 
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45851,00.html
                   
 
 
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2001-08-07 
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