By Pia Heikkila, 30 November 2001 14:45
NEWS The FBI's controversial snooping virus Magic Lantern could ultimately be a threat to the organisation itself. Magic Lantern hides a Trojan on a victim's hard drive that can snoop on users by recording their keyboard strokes. The software has already produced evidence that has been used to convict people. However, the spyware has caused controversy in the anti-virus industry. Many experts claim that as soon as variants start appearing in the wild it will become impossible to keep a track on who is snooping on whom. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus vendor Sophos, told silicon.com: "There's no reason why organisations targeted by Magic Lantern could not write a variant of the virus for their own use. "Before we know it, we'll all be spied on by everyone and anyone, the FBI could even become a victim of its own code." Cluley added: "Asking the anti-virus vendors to turn a blind eye is not really the right way to go about this. Our job is to detect malware and alert our customers regardless of where it came from." Magic Lantern is part of the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system programme.
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