So I'm watching "Law & Order", and they mentioned

[Occulus]

a government surveillance program titled "Magic Lantern".

I went and Googled it; I haven't seen it mentioned here before now. It's Carnivore, in a new incarnation, apparently:

http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews/winter2002/magiclantern.html

"The FBI is updating its surveillance technology to keep pace with the digital age. As part of a broad project called "Cyber Knight," the agency is developing powerful Internet eavesdropping software that can record every keystroke on a person's computer.

This new surveillance tool, known as "Magic Lantern," is being designed to thwart encryption software by capturing the keystrokes or mouseclicks a person might use to deliberately scramble messages or computer files. Magic Lantern exploits some of the same weaknesses in popular commercial software that allow hackers to break into computers, and could be used with a court order against suspected terrorists or criminals."

--more--

http://www.cotse.net/privacy/magic_lantern.htm

does anyone here know more?

[wtmusic]

1. well

they'd have to have access to your computer first. If you practice safe surfing anyway, it's probably not something to worry about (of course, they could do a sneak-and-peek search of your premises, courtesy of USA PATRIOT, and install it then).

IMO it would be a matter of weeks before a hacker had cracked 'Magic Lantern' and had distributed open source software to eliminate the virus.

Whoever doesn't yet have PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) should get it. The FBI's got to want you bad if they're going to crack that.

http://www.pgp.com/

[esvhicl]

2. Here's an example ;-)

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

[wtmusic]

3. Gotta love the ACLU

no doubt we'd be a lot closer to that point were it not for them

[hootinholler]

5. Too Good!

-Hoot

[dweller]

4. what's new in PGP?

i thought it was encryption for email, how does it protect against 'sneak and peek', etc?

dp

[wtmusic]

6. nothing

The only way to protect yourself from a sneak-and-peek is to keep your private key on a disk or something -- not practical.

I was just referring to keeping your emails private. I, at one time not so long ago, was having my emails read by law enforcement indirectly because of some comments I made at DU. I have proof.

If you think they wouldn't bother with you, you're mistaken.

[dweller]

7. no doubt they would

pgp is advisable for sure.

just looking at the log from my firewall keeps me paranoid.

thanks for the response on pgp.
dp