Anybody heard about the FBI's 'Magic Lantern'?

[therick]

Hey guys, came across this while surfing...kinda scary, isn't it? I mean, I think we should do everything we can to combat terrorism, but this? Any comments...


Anti-virus software vendors said on Monday they don't want to create a loophole in their security products to let the FBI (news - web sites) or other government agencies use a virus to eavesdrop on the computer communications of suspected criminals.

Under a project code named ``Magic Lantern,'' the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is creating an e-mail-borne virus or Trojan horse that hides itself on the computer and captures all keystrokes made, including passwords that could be used to read encrypted mail, according to a report on MSNBC.com in November.

Despite subsequent reports to the contrary, officials at Symantec Corp. and Network Associates Inc. said they had no intention of voluntarily modifying their products to satisfy the FBI. Spokesmen at two other computer security companies, Japan-based Trend Micro Inc. and the U.S. subsidiary of UK-based Sophos PLc., made similar statements.

[therick]

oh, the full story is here:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011210/tc/attack_tech_dc_1.html

[nfl2k2]

wouldn't a firewall like zonealarm stop the program from sending back info?

[pinoy2201]

atleast the the AntiVirus people didnt allow it...but that is sacrey the FBI looking at your personal info and if you do any thing illegal you'll get cuaght like that ..good thing the Antivirus people diint aloow this invasion of privacy

[bilbogod]

He He... I was just thinking of how Zone Alarm shows you the individual IP addresses. You can just see someone putting the numbers into their address bar and coming up with the members only section of the FBI website.
You can just see the FBI... "Dammit Stan we didn't think about Zone Alarm.. That's another fine mess you've gotten us into"

[speedy]

First off NO FORM of electronic spying would be "legal" without some judge issuing a warrant. Warrants can't be issued without first providing probable cause. Talking a federal judge into buying what some federal agent suspects isn't easy. A catch 22 built into the Constititution for obvious reasons. The United States is not and hopefully will never become a police state.

Such tools supposedly would be targeted at specific suspected terroists only... assuming you trust the Federal government. Second, nobody should open email attachments from unknown sources. Period. Third, in order to "phone home" software commonly called Trojans would be required. Any decent firewall like Zone Alarm would alert you some bogus application was trying to access the Internet and would ask your permission to allow it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: speedy on 2001-12-11 14:24:26 ]</font>

[ember]

The average FBI worker probably doesn't know what a trojan is. Lame system.

[bilbogod]

One man already caught via Magic Lantern....
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/011127/u_kjssmraeqtcgiqtgffbw_2.html

[thxkid]

If your not doing anyhing illegal on your computer so whats the problem, oh thats right you would have to take off all those programs with cracks on them. I forgot NOBODY pays for this stuff, they just rip off the manufacture, just like microsoft and all those illegal copies of XP operating systems out there. I bet very few people here update their computer through microsofts update system.

[ember]

Anti-virus companies have got it right: the problem with FBI trojans that are allowed through commercial firewalls is that some hacker is going to find a way not only to re-engineer the trojan to return a keystroke message along the lines of "@@@@ **** U FBI @@@@" but would also be able to reverse engineer the trojan in his own image and unleash it onto the net. Then, no firewall will be able to stop it and, thanks to the FBI, we will all be infected with a 2nd generation trojan that the cyber criminals will have access to and we can't stop.
So, if there are such trojans - they have to be sent directly to the suspects computer. And the suspects pc has to be suitably un-equipped with anti-trojan software for it to work.
Also, such keystroke information is not evidence in itself: it's surveilance only.

Oh, and I'm from the UK. Such an act of FBI snooping is a form of spying. And this could lead to problems if the UK government didn't have any contact with the investigators.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ember on 2001-12-12 14:05:32 ]</font>

[speedy]

Not to spook anybody, but if you use popular firewalls like blackice or Norton, or Microsoft's attempt (yuck) you should learn why they are so easy to trick into letting any half way decent trojan phone home and you'll never know.

Check out my favorite Security Guru revealing piece on why you may just be fooling yourself:

http://grc.com/lt/scoreboard.htm