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Scarfo case could test cyber-spying tactic

http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/12/04/front_page/JMOB04.htm?template=aprint.htm

Monday, December 4, 2000

Scarfo case could test cyber-spying tactic

By George Anastasia

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A federal gambling case against the son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo could instead be the first legal test of cutting-edge cyber-surveillance technology that some critics of federal investigations say borders on Big Brotherism.

Court records in the pending case indicate that Nicodemo S. Scarfo, 35, was the target of a sophisticated surveillance tool - a so-called keystroke-logging device - that allowed the FBI to reproduce every stroke he entered on a computer on which gambling records allegedly were stored.

Scarfo subsequently was charged with supervising a mob-linked bookmaking and loan-sharking operation in North Jersey.

Questions about the FBI's spying methods in the Scarfo investigation surface at a time when defense lawyers and civil libertarians have begun to ask how far federal authorities should be permitted to go with electronic surveillance. Critics say that technology is evolving faster than the laws governing privacy rights and that federal investigators, emboldened by the capabilities of their cyber-tools, frequently disregard constitutional guarantees.

"Anything he typed on that keyboard - a letter to his lawyer, personal or medical records, legitimate business records - they got it all," said Donald Manno, Scarfo's longtime lawyer.

"That's scary. It's dangerous," he said.

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