Free Republic

FBI wants access to worm's pilfered data A ROTTEN.COM EXCLUSIVE The FBI is asking for access to a massive database that contains the private communications and passwords of the victims of the Badtrans Internet worm. Badtrans spreads through security flaws in Microsoft mail software and transmits everything the victim types. Since November 24, Badtrans has violated the privacy of millions of Internet users, and now the FBI wants to take part in the spying. Victims of Badtrans are infected when they receive an email containing the worm in an attachment and either run the program by clicking on it, or ...

The informal community of Internet software pirates has been ripped apart by the recent international law-enforcement raids on many of its elite crackers, members of the shadowy scene said this week. "This is a bad hit for warez," one self-described 18-year-old programmer, who has been a member of the community for four years, wrote in an online chat with CNET News.com. "Right now, every scene is at a standstill. Every one of them." Warez is the generic online name for digital content such as games, movies or software whose copy protection has been defeated by skilled programmers. The programs can ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI has reversed its advice for computer users trying to protect themselves against serious flaws in the latest version of Windows: Applying the free fix from Microsoft Corp. (news/quote) is adequate, after all. The bureau's top cyber-security unit, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, told consumers and companies Thursday to disregard its earlier advice to go beyond the Microsoft recommendations to protect against hackers who might try to attack Windows computers. The FBI said it based its latest determination ``upon a careful review of the written technical materials provided by Microsoft'' and after working with the federally ...

THE FBI'S BLACK MAGIC? Ashcroft's New Attack on Civil Liberties Knock, knock. Who's there? The FBI. The FBI who? The FBI who is working on a way to gain remote access to all you type on your computer so we won't have to say "knock, knock" in the future. In mid-December, the FBI made a startling announcement that received scant attention. A spokesman for the bureau acknowledged it was developing a controversial Internet spying software -- code-named Magic Lantern -- that supposedly can surreptitiously enter an individual's personal computer, record every keystroke, and zap all this data back to ...

FBI May Use Keystroke-Recording Device Without Wiretap Order Select 'Print' in your browser menu to print this document. Back To Article ©2001 Law.com Page printed from: http://www.law.com FBI May Use Keystroke-Recording Device Without Wiretap Order Government doesn't have to explain technology's specifics Mary P. Gallagher New Jersey Law Journal January 3, 2002 In a case of first impression, a federal judge ruled Dec. 26 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not need a wiretap order to attach a keystroke-recording device to a reputed mobster's computer in order to learn the password to an encrypted file. U.S. District Judge Nicholas ...