For the last week or so I've been getting a couple of emails a day with the BadTrans.B worm attached. This is a mutation of the BadTrans worm that was spreading around this last spring.

Symantec's Anti-Virus Research Center's description of the worm is a bit disturbing: BadTrans.B installs a keystroke-logging module designed to intercept passwords and encryption keys...just like Magic Lantern.

Could this be a "proof-of-concept" run for Magic Lantern? Or just a hacker making a point about how easy it could be? Either way, the threat to civil liberties posed by Magic Lantern is very real.

On the issue of Network Associates' collaboration: As far as putting a backdoor into the PGP encryption software, I'd be very surprised if that happened. I've met PGP's creator, Phil Zimmerman. The government put the guy through hell for years with all sorts of chicken-[excrement] harrassment, and when I met him he was deeply committed to using PGP to counter government encroachment on civil liberties in cyberspace. He'd become a cause celebre among the "cypherpunks". Phil Zimmerman collaborating with his persecutors? I doubt it, not if he's still in any was associated with the company. And if he's not, then he won't hesitate to speak out.

--Robert