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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 16:40:17 EST
Subject: Fwd: [NCNF] NCNF - FBI builds a 'Trojan Horse' virus, just for you!
Please POST far and wide.
By: Nina Nafkah and Corrine Corvah. Staff-critters (11/29//2001)
The FBI has built a Trojan Horse virus to snoop on you...NO WARRANTS NEEDED!
Contact your Congress-critters and get real angry, cause this WII be abused
by law enforcement.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25471
The FBI's Magic Lantern
By Mike Sposato � 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Cyber Knights. Magic Lantern. These names conjure up visions of
King Arthur, the Round Table and defending the weak from the
strong. Protecting the innocent from the corrupt. Defending all
that is good from that which is evil. How could something called
"Cyber Knights" possibly be bad?
It is, though. It is very bad. After eight years of being headed
by Louis Freeh � a man who saw fit to revise Benjamin Franklin's
famous statement, "Those who would give up essential freedoms for
security, deserve neither freedom nor security" and replace it
with his own "The American people must be willing to give up a
degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security" �
the FBI has chosen to use Sept. 11 as an excuse to remove yet
another "degree of personal privacy."
Under a new initiative called Cyber Knights, the FBI has launched
into the business of creating "Trojans" � a particular type of
computer virus � to infect computers. Yes, that's correct, the
FBI, wants to infect your computer with a virus. Launch a program
from an infected e-mail, and the FBI will have a record of every
keystroke you make on your machine. They call it their "Magic
Lantern." Possibly learning from their public relations debacle
"Carnivore," now renamed the "DCS-1000," and the lesser known
"Omnivore," the FBI has chosen names wisely this time. Names
carefully designed to evoke warm fuzzy feelings of being
protected by the proverbial "White Knight" � a Cyber Knight, if
you will.
Modern cryptography has reached the point where it is not
breakable by the FBI. Nor will it be in the foreseeable future,
barring some stunning breakthrough in computer science or
mathematics. The basic problem in breaking strong crypto is that
you start with two prime numbers, and then you combine them
mathematically. To break the code, and recover the message, you
have to get back to those original prime numbers. Which has been
compared to mixing a pound of sugar with a pound of salt, and
then trying to separate them back out at a later date.
Every public case where the FBI has overcome cryptography has
involved getting the "pass-phrase," or "key" surreptitiously. One
notable case had them installing a "key-logger" on a suspect's
computer, which allowed them to capture his pass-phrase, and open
his encrypted files.
But you must pity the poor FBI. In order to accomplish this task,
they have to get a warrant, physically enter the premises and
install their hardware � all without being detected. Then someone
had a bright idea: If hackers could plant viruses on people's
computers undetected, why couldn't they do it too? Once remote
control key-loggers are installed as "Trojans" on your machine,
you'll never even know you're infected.
"But wait a darn minute! I use anti-virus software! I'm
protected," you might say. Guess again. Like other quislings and
collaborators of the past, McAfee, largest anti-virus software
producer in the world, sniveled up to the federal police and
simpered that they would take steps to ensure their software
didn't alert you that you had been infected by the FBI. This
infuriates me. I use McAfee's product � which I paid for in good
faith.
Their software's job is to alert me when a virus has infected my
computer. It is not their place to decide what is a "good" virus
and what is a "bad" virus.
There are questions about the legality of this approach. Will
they need a warrant? How will you know if they have acted without
a warrant? Plus there is that darned old Constitution getting in
the way of "efficient" law enforcement again. (Side note � always
be afraid when the powers that be, begin talking about "efficient
law enforcement.") The Fourth Amendment states in part " S and no
Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Installing
key-loggers that capture every keystroke indiscriminately would
seem to me to be a violation of this clause. It also seems to me
that this could constitute a "fishing expedition," if the
key-logger is grabbing all keystrokes, when a warrant specifies a
pass-phrase.
But I may be wrong. In a post Sept. 11 world, we seem to have
entered a world where "the ends justify the means" and the
average American seems to agree with Louis Freeh. Pretty sad,
America.
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Mike Sposato has 23 years experience in the computer industry. He
currently is a software engineer with experience in security
software involving both PGP and stand-alone encryption
algorithms. Additionally, he is a member of IEEE, ACM and The
Software Contractors Guild.
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