[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Feds say keystroke logger details are covered by "national security"

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 7 Aug 2001 07:26:13 -0400
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Feds say keystroke logger details are covered by "national security"
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

The FBI's Kerr has been named the CIA's next deputy director for
science and technology:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30341-2001Aug3.html

EPIC has placed the documents online:
http://www.epic.org/crypto/scarfo.html

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45851,00.html

   Feds: Spy Tool Is a Secret
   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."

   [...]



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