IP: Unintended Consequences and a Nation Made Weaker (fwd)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: David Lesher <wb8foz () nrk com>
>
> Subject:      Unintended Consequences and a Nation Made Weaker
> From: "Andrew C. Greenberg" <werdna () MUCOW COM>
>
> There was a recent discussion on Slashdot concerning an article
> appearing in the Washington Post regarding the FBI's Cyber Knight
> program and the Magic Lantern remote key logger virus:
>
>         http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1436-2001Nov22.html
>
> In particular, the article suggests that virus manufacturer,
> McAfee, has agreed not to "recognize" ML so to alert suspects
> about being keylogged.  In the discussion, it was suggested
> that if McAfee is ignoring viruses as part of its virus checking
> program, then all a malicious virus need do is to mimic whatever
> signature is used to recognize ML, and thus have free reign over
> a subject system.
>
> The irony here, is that permitting government to engage in
> unauthorized and covert entry to a citizen's computer system,
> and having manufacturers of safety equipment "support" the covert
> entry, the likely consequence is an effective backdoor that can
> also be exploited by virus writers, including cyberterrorists.
>
> In other words, in its efforts to protect the nation from
> terrorism, the federal government has in fact weakened the
> nation's IT infrastructure, and made us even more vulnerable to
> the bad guys.  Far from protecting us, the FBI has only made a
> nation weaker.


For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/