Symantec Will Not Detect Magic Lantern

An anonymous reader contributes: "In this article on Declan McCullagh's Politech, Symantec chief researcher Eric Chien stated that provided a hypothetical keystroke logging tool was used only by the FBI, Symantec would avoid updating its antivirus tools to detect such a Trojan, echoing a similar stance Network Associates allegedly took with its McAfee anti-virus software earlier this week. 'If it was under the control of the FBI, with appropriate technical safeguards in place to prevent possible misuse, and nobody else used it -- we wouldn't detect it,' said Chien. 'However we would detect modified versions that might be used by hackers.'"

Comments

the other guy

[Capt Dan]

What worries me is when the other guy writes a program that as far as McAffee or Symantec are concerned, looks enough like Magic Lantern that it is left alone to merrily go about it's business on your computer.

Such a program would be very very bad.