e-bugs: should anti-virus products detect them?
Graham Cluley Sophos Anti-Virus
Recently there have been media reports about the FBI's use of software
to monitor the activity of suspected criminals and terrorists. These
so-called `e-bugs' (with codenames such as Magic Lantern) capture the
keystrokes of remote computer users in a similar way to the Trojan
horses dropped by worms like Badtrans.
There have been suggestions in the media that some anti-virus
companies may work in co-operation with the FBI, and deliberately not
detect such Trojan horses.
This paper examines whether non-detection of e-bugs makes sense and
whether customers have a legitimate requirement to be informed if they
are being `e-bugged'.
This paper makes the case that using 'e-bugs' to spy on suspected
criminals and terrorists is fraught with dangers, as there is no way
of ensuring that the code will not be adapted by its recipients for
illegal use.
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