FBI Spyware And Online Privacy

Published: July 20, 2007, 9:05 am

Tags: internet, fbi, internet, online, privacy, spyware

Wired has an interesting article exploring the mechanics of the software that the FBI used to track down a 15 year old student who made bomb threats against his school. The software is described as a “computer and internet protocol address verifier” or CIPAV for short. If you go through the list of data it captures, it looks like a common piece of spyware or malware. This is the information it tracks: IP address MAC address of ethernet cards A list of open TCP and UDP ports A list of running programs The operating system type, version and serial number The default internet browser and version The registered user of the operating system, and registered company name, if any The current logged-in user name The last visited URL While tools like CIPAV are obviously important for exactly the circumstances under which it was used here, the following statement irked me a little. Under a ruling this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, such surveillance —

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