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FBI Shines a Magic Lantern

by Maarten Goldstein, Dec 13, 2001 4:16am PST

Looks like the FBI is working on their latest Internet snooping technology, the Magic Lantern, as it has confirmed its existence. The software is capable of capturing keystrokes, after it has been planted as a computer virus. Major antivirus companies have already announced that until they are legally specified to do otherwise, they will continue to detect and prevent viruses which would include this one. The FBI already got into a lot of shit last year because of their Carnivore project, where they placed hardware at ISPs that would allow them to read and track the emails of suspected people.

When word of Magic Lantern leaked out in published reports in November, civil libertarians said the program could easily be abused by overzealous law enforcement agencies. When asked if Magic Lantern would require a court order for the FBI to use it, as existing keystroke logger technology does, Bresson said: "Like all technology projects or tools deployed by the FBI it would be used pursuant to the appropriate legal process."


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Comments

27 Threads | 101 Comments*
  • #21
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    By: the archvile x
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    An interesting point raised in the article on The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/23150.html

    The FBI simply is not going to root someone's box. That would give them remote access, which means they would blow the bust because they'd be open to reasonable doubt that they planted evidence.

    The phrase that got my attention was "...reasonable doubt that they planted evidence." Now they are essentially planting this thing, right? So who's to say that they haven't also planted a program which writes text files with spurious Product IDs and CD keys?

    There's simply too much reasonable doubt involved if they keep this under wraps, and if they don't keep it under wraps, it'll be hacked in a few weeks. Also, how do the current wiretapping laws tie into this? And whatever happened to that amendment about "unreasonable searches and seizures"?
    Dec 13, 2001 7:06am PST