FBI is Watching: Magic-Lantern Virus

[Diva]

The FBI has admitted that rumors about a government-sponsored virus, which infects computers and records all keystrokes made, are true.


"Magic Lantern (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011212/tc/tech_magiclantern_dc_1.html) reportedly would allow the agency to plant a Trojan horse keystroke logger on a target's PC by sending a computer virus over the Internet, rather than require physical access to the computer as is now the case."

Big brother has arrived. Anyone else see something wrong with this? What's your opinion?

[Redallnite]

I read an article about the government doing something like that but it was going to happen sooner or later. If they are going to get off on my petty shit, so be it. I don't believe they will even bother monitoring the average person.

I don't understand the keystroke logger or virus?? Someone explain that to me in very simple terms please......

[berly]

In other words, the government will issue a program that will "infect" computers used for access to the internet, that way they don't have to knock on the door and ask to come in. Then they will be able to see everything that computer is used for. Just like having someone stand over your shoulder while you use your computer, except that they NEVER go away, they tattle on you if you break the law, and you can't slug them to make yourself feel better. Chances are, it will issue some kind of bill for you to pay just for the privilege of having it involuntarily installed on your computer!

That's my guess, anyway.

I think this is a giant violation of the common human right to privacy. Especially if they do (did) this without notifying users. Lucky for me, I can't be arrested for wasting time at work...but at this rate...I probably will be soon! I don't believe that the information obtained would be used properly anyway. (In terms of stopping "terrorist" attacks or whatever...) OOOh, here's a question for Am, or anyone else who has a great knowledge of history...isn't history just full of instances where information was obtained prior to and the bad thing happened anyway? I just don't see the benefit outweighing the violation.

[The_Roach]

You're absolutely right about it being an invasion of privacy. And they will be monitoring the average user, you can count on that. As computers become more and more capable, they will be able to set up several supercomputer systems in a decentralized network (just like our internet is now) whose sole purpose will be to monitor all internet traffic for red flags, similar to the style in which the IRS handles our taxes here in the States.

These red flags would then be logged and set aside, only calling for action in the event of specific infringements of law (such as terrorist threats), or the eventual piling of offenses that result in a "need" for intervention. Think of them as technological Thought Police.

Unfortunately, due to the recent signing of the USA PATRIOT act, they can do this without permission, just like wire "tapping". They can do it without fear of entrapment, and you will be arrested and convicted based on this evidence. Once more, a panic stricken America has given away it's rights and freedoms.

So, for all of you h4x0rs and would-be terrorists, use basic net sense when it comes to opening files downloaded from the internet. This will work for a couple of months before they manage to spread it to every server in the world. Then, we will only triumph through persistance and protest.

Contact your congressmen. Tell them that you are not afraid of terrorism, that you are afraid of your government, and that you don't need protecting.

[Jake]

I agree with you completely, Roach. Once we allow the government to 'know what's best for us, whether we like it or not' we might as well burn the constitution and every shred of literature that protects us. It will be worthless. Then Bin Laden has won.

[ozblonde]

ok can some one explain viruses to me please. I know Im dumb and every thing but what are they and what do they do? What is an antivirus?

[The_Roach]

Here's the definition as found in The Jargon File, the most thorough computer geek lexicon on the net.

From The Jargon File:

virus n.

[from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become Trojan horses. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the `infection'. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a worm, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see SEX). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include nice display hacks). Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded crackers, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user's files.

In the 1990s, viruses became a serious problem, especially among Windows users; the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system (Unix machines, by contrast, are immune to such attacks). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many lusers tend to blame everything that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a worm or even a Trojan horse). See phage; compare back door; see also Unix conspiracy.
Diva mentioned the term "Trojan Horse" in the first posting to this thread. I include it's definition as well:

From The Jargon File:

Trojan Horse n.

[coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A malicious, security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign, such as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious 1990 case on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See back door, virus, worm, phage, mockingbird.
I actually dealt with the Mac Trojan referred to above. I was in grade school, and helping out the tech teacher in the Macintosh lab. I still laugh about it to this day, though we were hardly laughing at the time.

For The Jargon File (or everything else), visit http://www.everything2.com

As a side note, I would like to take a moment to point out one of the ironies of this whole situation. See, people who write viruses are not entirely to blame for their proliferation. Sure, they coded the thing, and perhaps they even uploaded it to some server or newsgroup as a Trojan Horse. However, nobody is more to blame for an infected system than the end-user. Virii do not execute themselves.

Keeping this in mind, even without the recent lifting of restrictions to "wire tapping" (and other forms of electronic surveillance) with the USA PATRIOT Act, there is quite a legal loophole that can be taken advantage of where viruses are concerned as the virus itself is actually installed by the user who is being monitored. Scary thought, no?

The question that I have is will this change the manner in which virus writing code phreaks (lower end of the food chain, in my opinion) are prosecuted, or will it just be neatly overlooked that our govenment is engaging (once again) in practices that would be illegal for any common citizen? I weep for the future.

if the government admits to anything it's 'cause they've been doin' it so long they've found a way to do something better. as of right now that idea had LONG occurred to me and i'll bet something like that has been around ever since the advent of the full-scale consumer-driven internet. so with that in mind i could care less about that.

what DOES concern me is what ways of surveillance do they now employ to watch my ass right NOW. regardless though, they need some way of maintaining some sort of preventative measure against all the things out there that conspire against the world. all those fuckedup middle-easterners with an ax to grind about EVERYBODY around them can't WAIT to get their hands on nukes so they can REALLY fuck somebody up. bah, fuck it.

[Scranton]

Those "fucked up middle easterners" as you so mildly put it do not have an axe to grind, on the contrary; they are just shoving their religion up our arse's like the churche's over here has done since the year dot. Who's to say wether they're not right! amybe they know2 something we don't?
As for the big brother shit; Your living in America! what the fuck do you expect! all your fucking C.I.A/F.B.I are paranoid cunts, it's how your country gets by. Live with it!

those fuckedup middleeasterners have just that scranton: a fat-fuckin' snaggle-edged knarled pieceofshit axe to grind. most of those bitches over there are muslim. know what that means? they claim to be decendants of Ishmail. why does that matter? the people of Israel and their decendants (aka Jews) claim to be in the direct line of Isaac. who are ishmail and isaac? the two most prominent sons of abraham and one was promised to be the in a long line of a great nation. it's a long story, but in the end two nations formed due to some fuckedup circumstances and now the sons of isaac and the sons of ishmail are at each other's throats, except there a lot more muslims than jews over there, which is why the US got involved in the first place.

as for the "live with it" comment, you say that as if i was complaining. i wasn't. i don't give a shit. except for my mild aversions to tripping elderly ladies and spanking cats, i've nothing to hide. and since i'm not running for office or anything, those fuckedup things they just may know about me can't really do me any damage. so i welcome MORE surveillance. if they wanna put fuckin' cameras in my house i'd welcome that shit. whatever they can do to asure me that Osama and his merry band of dipshits can't infect my ass with anthrax or some other type-A biological weapon is cool with me.