Its been more than six months since the news broke about the FBIs new high tech spying device named "Magic Lantern." The government, understandably, wants to keep the Magic Lantern technology under wraps. But that didnt stop "CyberCrime" from getting the inside scoop on this high tech surveillance device from experts, which well show you on this weeks episode. The Magic Lantern technology began as part of a broad FBI project called "Cyber Knight" -- the same project that spawned the notorious Carnivore email monitoring device. Magic Lantern goes much farther than Carnivore, though. If initial reports are correct, it will allow investigators to secretly install software that records every keystroke on a persons computer, steal passwords, and read encrypted messages. With many encryption programs available on the Internet, the FBI has been frustrated in efforts to break open encrypted messages, and officials are increasingly concerned about their ability to read encrypted messages in criminal or terrorist investigations. Magic Lantern also resolves another important problem with the FBIs existing computer monitoring technology -- the "key logger system." In the past, investigators had to break into a targets residence armed with a warrant and physically attach a device to a computer. Magic Lantern, however, can be installed over the Internet by tricking a person into opening an email attachment. It is unclear whether Magic Lantern would transmit keystrokes it records back to the FBI over the Internet or store the information to be seized later in a raid. Once up and running, it can reportably records all keystrokes, peer into file, and even translate encrypted words into readable text.
http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/privacy/story/0,23008,3386018,00.html
