FBI is Watching: Magic-Lantern Virus

[Stallion]

Argh, too many damn problems with MS, its hard to keep on top of it all. ;-)

Thanks for the heads up...

[Skeptical]

Originally posted by Stallion
I believe I read that somewhere...Slashdot I believe...but you're right, they could work with Microsoft to implement it at the OS level. Of course, that's why we have open source software... ;-)

Then again, I think the government has better things to do than snooping on my work -- and if not, its not like I'm doing anything worth hiding.

No wonder China and other countries don't like to use Windows and opt instead for Linux!

[Martin]

Originally posted by Chris Schreiber
I think this is absolutely horrible... it's ashame that the terrorist attacks have taken away some of our civil liberties.

I was happy about this:

Major anti-virus vendors this week said they would not voluntarily cooperate with the FBI and said their products would continue to be updated to detect and prevent viruses, regardless of their origin, unless there was a legal order otherwise.

Then maybe you need to read this:

http://news.excite.com/news/bw/011213/ca-computer-economics

[JamesUS]

The day this is included as standard in Windows (and I've got little doubt that it will be) will be the day I buy a mac

Like Stallion I don't use a virus scanner, so I'm not quite as bothered about whether the scanners detect it as everyone else. I still think this would be a really bad move for the FBI and the Computer Industry though.

[Raz Meister]

Originally posted by Stallion
You'll still have to open an email attachment to be infected.

Personally, I don't use anti-virus software and I've NEVER had a single virus problem in over six years -- so this doesn't worry me. Just don't double click executables sent from a .gov email address... ;-)

If you're using Outlook then some viruses auto-execute JUST by downloading it!

[Kaizen]

You can put clever vb script into an email and someone could be infected and not even know about it !

[chrispadfield]

I am not convinced it is as bad as all that. It depends how it is done and what they mean by a virus. If they mean they send the virus to everyone via microsoft (who i can't imagine ever agreeing unless forced to) or another mechanism then sure that is bad. But if they choose isolated targets that they want to monitor I don't see how it is any different to tapping a phone line.

And it is hardly hard to stop, just install a firewall. Unfortunatly most criminals will know this.

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by chrispadfield
But if they choose isolated targets that they want to monitor I don't see how it is any different to tapping a phone line.

No, if they had a warrant, I wouldn't have a problem with it... it's just if they "infected" everyone with this hoping to catch bad people, then I have a big problem with it.

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by Chris Schreiber


No, if they had a warrant, I wouldn't have a problem with it... it's just if they "infected" everyone with this hoping to catch bad people, then I have a big problem with it.

Yup I agree. I just don't think they would be able to infect everyone without someone knowing.