BNA'sInternet Law News (ILN) - 12/5/00) An instructive case. Apparently they used the keystroke monitoring to obtain the pgp passphrase, which was then used to decrypt the files. The legal fight over whether the monitor was legal and whether the information so obtained are in fact records of criminal activity is a side-show. It remains practical evidence of how insecure computer equipment / OS's and pass-phrase based identity authentication combine to reduce the effective security of a system. "R. A. Hettinga" wrote:

At 8:30 AM -0500 on 12/5/00, BNA Highlights wrote:

...

KEYSTROKE MONITORING AND THE SOPRANOS A federal gambling case against the son of a New Jersey mob boss may provide the courts with the opportunity to weigh in on the privacy issues surrounding keystroke monitoring. The FBI's surveillance included the use of such technology to reproduce every stroke entered on a computer. The defense plans to challenge the FBI's surveillance methods at pre-trial defense motion. http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/12/04/front_page/JMOB04.htm

-- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

--- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'