Declan McCullagh at CNET writes on the use of keyloggers to tap into people’s computers and track their activities.

“A recent court case provides a rare glimpse into how federal agents deal with encryption: By breaking into a suspect’s home or office, implanting keystroke logging software, and spying on what happens from afar.

An agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration persuaded a federal judge to authorize him to sneak into an Escondido, Calif. office believed to be a front for manufacturing the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy. The DEA received permission to copy the hard drives’ contents and inject a keystroke logger into the computers.

That was necessary, according to DEA Agent Greg Coffey, because the suspects were using PGP and the encrypted Web e-mail service Hushmail.com. Coffey claimed that the DEA needed “real-time and meaningful access” to “monitor the keystrokes” for PGP and Hushmail passphrases. “