Previous messages: "Symantec pledges to acquiese to FBI backdoor demands" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02851.html "McAfee broadens denial: No contact with government of any sort" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02846.html There are at least two issues here: (1) Have the antivirusware makers contacted or been contacted by law enforcement re: Magic Lantern or a product with similar reported capabilites? (2) Will the antivirusware makers acquiese if contacted in the future? (More broadly, will security software makers put their customers' interests first? And if you conclude that you can trust them and you've guessed wrongly, being able to call them liars once your privacy and security are invaded may be faint consolation.) We've now heard contradictory reports from both Symantec and McAfee, though I'm inclined to believe McAfee's public, on-the-record statements. -Declan --- From: "Trei, Peter" <ptreiat_private> To: "'declanat_private'" <declanat_private> Subject: Symantic, McAfee backpedal furiously on espionage enabling their AV code. Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 09:55:16 -0500 I'm trying to decide if these statements are airtight. I wish the vendors had unambiguously stated that they do their very best to detect and neutralize *all* viruses and trojans, regardless of their source, and will continue to do so in the future. Peter Trei ------------------------- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011210/tc/attack_tech_dc.html Monday December 10 8:30 PM ET Antivirus Firms Say They Won't Create FBI Loophole By Elinor Mills Abreu SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Anti-virus software vendors said on Monday they don't want to create a loophole in their security products to let the FBI (news - web sites) or other government agencies use a virus to eavesdrop on the computer communications of suspected criminals. Under a project code named "Magic Lantern," the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is creating an e-mail-borne virus or Trojan horse that hides itself on the computer and captures all keystrokes made, including passwords that could be used to read encrypted mail, according to a report on MSNBC.com in November. Despite subsequent reports to the contrary, officials at Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) and Network Associates Inc. (Nasdaq:NETA - news) said they had no intention of voluntarily modifying their products to satisfy the FBI. Spokesmen at two other computer security companies, Japan-based Trend Micro Inc. (Nasdaq:TMIC - news) and the U.S. subsidiary of UK-based Sophos PLc., made similar statements. All four anti-virus companies said they had not contacted or been contacted by the U.S. government on the matter. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Dec 11 2001 - 08:31:32 PST