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What We Know About the FBI's CIPAV Spyware
StonyandCher writes "What is CIPAV? CIPAV stands for 'Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier'; a lengthy term for powerful spyware the Federal Bureau of Investigation can bring to bear on web-based crime. It was used last month in a case where someone was emailing bomb threats regularly to a Washington high school. An affidavit by an FBI agent revealed some of the workings of CIPAV. 'According to the court filing, this is [some of] what the CIPAV collects from the infected computer: IP address, Media Access Control address for the network card, List of open TCP and UDP ports, List of running programs ... Last visited URL. Once that initial inventory is conducted, the CIPAV slips into the background and silently monitors all outbound communication, logging every IP address to which the computer connects, and time and date stamping each.' In a Computerworld article, the author attempts to dissect CIPAV's purpose and raises a number of questions such as: What happens to the data the CIPAV collects? Does the CIPAV capture keystrokes? Can the CIPAV spread on its own to other computers, either purposefully or by accident? Does it erase itself after its job is done?"
Just look for the guy with that address!
It most do a trace route/phone home or somthing to actually get a useful address
can't we just continue calling this Vista?
Let's find out...
"Mr. Gman from Quantico, VA has sent you an eGreetingCard from Flowers By Irene! Just open this P.D.F. file to view..."
The AV could just take the middle ground with a generic description like "Suspicious Program: E-card Viewer", it is unlikely it will display as "W.32CIPAV j00 R SO FEDERALLY PWNED"
It's sold to commercial firms so they can advertise to you.
Duh.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
No, but that would be awsome. Maybe some of the open source antivirus kits out there (I know there's at least one) should use that as the name if they ever manage to get a signature of CIPAV.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
Yes.
I demand a Mac OS X port! And a Linux port! The FBI is being unfair! ;)
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
$sudo apt-get remove cipav
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package cipav
Whew, safe!
The television will not be revolutionized.
Spent on a sophisticated solution for detecting your IP address, and the FBI has integrated THIS into CIPAV.
yeah well I created my own OS from scratch, and roll all my own applications for it too. Next project will be to create a processor from scratch too.
If they managed a remote install there will be a prompt on my screen about permitting an unknown application to connect to the internet.
In the grand scheme of things, spam doesn't rate very high when compared to a bomb threat. Resource limitations dictate that the FBI concentrate on music downloading, bomb threats, and spam, in that order ;)...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
try{
getTarget().addUncostitutionalSpyware();
}
catch (SomebodyFoundOutException e){
getTarget().accuse( new Excuse( Excuse.paedophile , Excuse.terrorist ));
}
finally{
profit();
}
I'm sure they've accounted for the possibilities you've raised (excellent points, by the way.) And, if you were to actually ask the FBI about those issues, I'm sure the conversation would go something like this:
Brody: The CIPAV is a source of unspeakable power and it has to be researched!
Eaton: And it will be, I assure you Dr. Brody, Dr. Jones. We have top men working on it right now.
Jones: Who?
Eaton: Top men.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
oh no - it's going to have Ajax and a drop shadow!
henry -- the human evolution news relay
Since when did we ever let little things like evidence or common sense get in the way of a nice bit of conspiracy theorising?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.