McAfee Will Ignore FBI Spyware

Drew writes: "The Washington Post is reporting on the FBI's new spyware called 'Magic Lantern.' According to their article, 'At least one antivirus software company, McAfee Corp., contacted the FBI on Wednesday to ensure its software wouldn't inadvertently detect the bureau's snooping software and alert a criminal suspect.' It is ridiculous that the software companies that are supposed to help us protect computers purposefully leave in loopholes for the FBI to operate their spyware."

Comments

Re:Magic Lantern benefits crackers!

[The Pim]

- Modify c:\windows\hosts, point fbi.gov to the ip of haxor.org
- Mail all passwords to me@fbi.org

This particular example is silly: any software smart enough to detect and stop outgoing mail would probably 1) use the IP address of fbi.gov to allow Magic Lantern and 2) flag the modification of the hosts file as suspicious. However, ...

Virus writers are smart. Very smart some times... keep this in mind please ;-)

... you are right in the same sense that I already mentioned: it's an arms race. There will always be ways to evade scanners, and perhaps the Magic Lantern features will make it a little easier. But it's hardly a red carpet for viruses.

(Heck, if Magic Lantern does send mail to spooks@fbi.gov, and you can subvert the router on the victim's network, you can just infect him with the real Magic Lantern and you win!)