yet another reason to never open fscking attachments

[geekchick]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3371-2001Nov22.html

Magic Lantern would largely resolve an important problem with the FBI's existing monitoring technology, the "key logger system", which in the past has required investigators to sneak into a target's home or business with a "sneak-and-peak warrant" and secretly attach the device to a computer.

In contrast, Magic Lantern could be installed over the Internet by tricking a person into opening an e-mail attachment or by exploiting some of the same weakness in popular commercial software that allow hackers to break into computers. It is unclear whether Magic Lantern would transmit keystrokes it records back to the FBI over the Internet or store the information to be seized later in a raid. The existence of Magic Lantern was first disclosed by MSNBC.

Comments

[bratling.livejournal.com]

under federal law, this is computer trespassing, a criminal act with serious fines attached. i suspect a good lawyer would be able to get thrown out any data gathered in this way. until congress rewrites law to allow it, anyway...

sunsets and war crimes

[bratling.livejournal.com]

Who woulda thunk that we'd need PC security products (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/) just to make sure we don't get hacked by the cops...

You may be glad to know, however, that the "Patriot" legislation hurriedly passed last month has a four year sunset provision (http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct01/nichcol03100201a.asp). This means that if congress does not explicitly go out of its way to renew the legislation, it quietly goes away and we return to the legal code we had three months ago.

That article I link to above also mentions that if we declare war, we would have to comply with the Geneva and Vienna Conventions.