An estimated 245 law
enforcement agencies in 35 states have for years been distributing
software called ComputerCOP as a way for parents to ensure their
children have a safe web-browsing experience. The problem is,
ComputerCOP is just glorified spyware that lacks basic safety
features.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today
published its findings about this “internet safety software,”
and it’s not pretty:
As security software goes, we observed a product with a
keystroke-capturing function, also called a “keylogger,” that could
place a family’s personal information at extreme risk by
transmitting what a user types over the Internet to third-party
servers without encryption. That means many versions
of ComputerCOP leave children (and their parents, guests, friends,
and anyone using the affected computer) exposed to the same
predators, identity thieves, and bullies that police claim the
software protects against.
The EFF notes that there’s a gaping window of opportunity for
abuse of the keylogger function. One could just as easily use it to
steal information from a coworker or roommate. ComputerCOP would
actually be a cyberstalker’s wet dream, as it didn’t elicit an
alert from any major malware scanning tools.
And, the fact that it stores sensitive information unencrypted
means that “when a child with ComputerCOP installed on their laptop
connects to public Wi-Fi, any sexual predator, identity thief, or
bully with freely available packet-sniffing software can grab those
key logs right out of the air.”
When it isn’t outright endangering people, ComputerCOP is just
inept. Regarding its search function, which is supposed to find
drug, sex, and crime-related files and images:
On some computer systems, it produces a giant haystack of false
positives, including flagging items as innocuous as raw computer
code. On other systems, it will only produce a handful of results
while typing keywords such as “drugs” into Finder or File Explorer
will turn up a far larger number of hits. While the marketing
materials claim that this software will allow you to view what web
pages your child visits, that’s only true if the child is using
Internet Explorer or Safari. The image search will potentially turn
up tens of thousands of hits because it can’t distinguish between
images children have downloaded and the huge collection of icons
and images that are typically part of the software on your
computer.
Read the rest of the EFF’s in-depth report
here.
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