Best I can tell, MSNBC broke the Magic Lantern story in November 2001. Magic Lantern is the code-name for the FBI’s Internet spying software that is reportedly capable of entering an individual computer like a virus and recording all user activity. Keystrokes, passwords, encryption keys, mouse-clicks, menu selections, everything one does on his computer will be dutifully reported back to the FBI. For the most part, this story has gotten very little coverage in the mainstream media since MSNBC’s first report. Even after the FBI acknowledged the project in the month after the MSNBC story first appeared (prior to that, the FBI would neither confirm nor deny that it was working on Magic Lantern), the mainstream media mostly ignored the story.
While the technology employed by Magic Lantern is probably nothing new—readily available hacker tools like Back Orifice and SubSeven are both means to the same end—the FBI project would be a dramatic advance for law enforcement. Magic Lantern’s main use would likely be to obtain the private encryption keys of suspects. The software could be installed by something as innocuous as an email message apparently from a friend. Some sort of keystroke-detection device installed by an agent has already been used by the FBI in at least one case, but Magic Lantern would eliminate the risk associated with physically planting a monitoring device on a suspect’s computer.
Magic Lantern would add considerably to the FBI’s bag of electronic eavesdropping toys. While Carnivore is like a mugger, installed at an Internet service provider to monitor all data traffic—supposedly picking out only information related to specific suspects—Magic Lantern is like a pickpocket that monitors all of a single suspect’s computer activity.
The problem with Magic Lantern, from a civil rights perspective, is the same as the problem with Carnivore: both lead to overly broad searches. The courts have consistently held that wiretaps are supposed to be exceptionally narrow in scope and with extensive oversight. There are other problems as well. Unless the system is open source (that’ll be the day), U.S. citizens will never know of Magic Lantern’s full capabilities. Open source or closed, we’ll also never know to what extent Magic Lantern is being deployed—if it can be installed surreptitiously, how can we be assured that Magic Lantern is used only with an appropriate court order.
This last point was driven home alarmingly well when reporters asked the various vendors of virus detection software if they would protect against government “virii” like Magic Lantern. After much hemming and hawing and several dropped balls, all the virus detection vendors insisted that they were not cooperating with the FBI to ignore Magic Lantern.
The Bush administration appears none to eager to cooperate with any congressional oversight with regard to electronic surveillance. During a December 6, 2001 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) asked Attorney General John Ashcroft if he would agree to meet each calendar quarter with Congress to discuss government usage of Carnivore and Magic Lantern. Ashcroft’s non-response response: “I welcome the opportunity for the [Justice] Department to work with you toward these objectives.” Uh-huh. When pigs fly.
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