FBI Wants to Keep Lid on Its PC Tracker

The FBI claims U.S. national security might be compromised and lives lost if the agency is forced to disclose its secret technique for bugging the personal computer of a reputed mob boss’ son accused of bookmaking.

A federal judge is weighing whether the FBI must reveal to Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. how it used its “key logger system” to track what he typed on his computer. The system captured every keystroke Scarfo made and gave agents the password they needed to read encrypted files that allegedly contained gambling records, defense lawyers said.

FBI agents have never disclosed how the system works. To tell lawyers for Scarfo, the son of former Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, would “jeopardize both ongoing and future criminal and national security operations,” prosecutors argued in court papers filed in Newark, N.J., this month .

Scarfo’s lawyers want to learn about the key logger system to determine whether the FBI violated his constitutional rights in gathering evidence against him.