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The FBI Has a Trojan To Watch You 372

G_of_the_J writes "A man who had cut 18 cables affecting Verizon and Comcast was blackmailing them. He had demanded bank accounts be set up and information be provided on web sites that he specified. Although he used anonymous access to get to the web sites, the FBI had planted a trojan which was downloaded to his computer. The trojan then sent his IP address and other information to the FBI."
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The FBI Has a Trojan To Watch You

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:04AM (#27646183)

    Crap. Too bad that website was the top rank on a google search for comcast verizon cut cable blackmail.
    I suppose posting anonymously won't help now.

  • by immakiku ( 777365 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:09AM (#27646259)

    I don't know... Seems to me like another reason not to cut 18 cables and not know how to hide your identity.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:11AM (#27646303)

    Ya its called windows XP

  • by noundi ( 1044080 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:12AM (#27646317)
    "This website requires additional ActiveX components to be installed."

    Hmm...

    *click*

    ...

    Oops.
  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:14AM (#27646353) Journal
    First read Slashdot and understand all the technical details needed to hide your identity. Then go ahead cut the cable and demand ransom.
  • by Lilith's Heart-shape ( 1224784 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:14AM (#27646361) Homepage
    If this guy had had half a brain, he would have wiped the computer's hard drive clean by overwriting it with zeroes, and then done everything by using a Linux distribution on a bootable CD that could run entirely in RAM. Instead, he ran Windows and got nailed by a Trojan. Somewhere in the afterlife, J. Edgar Hoover is laughing his panty-clad ass off.
  • by cortesoft ( 1150075 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:15AM (#27646369)

    Always use noscript when doing nefarious shit....

  • by Orleron ( 835910 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:19AM (#27646435) Homepage
    Hopefully the FBI will provide him with a different kind of Trojan after he winds up in jail sharing a cell with "Bubba".
  • by Shakrai ( 717556 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:20AM (#27646459) Journal

    So we can assume that the right to keep and bear arms can include the use of trojans for personal reasons. Perhaps the Fed would like to tax and license the use of trojans. Only after an approved trojan safety course has been passed, of course. Other permits would be required to use a trojan outside of ones home and some public venues could ban the use of trojans in their facilities.

    Requiring a permit to use trojans outside of the home wouldn't seem consistent with the Democrats position on sex education ;)

  • by qoncept ( 599709 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:20AM (#27646469) Homepage
    What incredible insight.

    Greta: He knocked over another ATM. This time at knife point. He needs your legal advice.
    Fletcher: [picking up phone and shouting] Stop breaking the law, asshole!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:23AM (#27646503)

    If you get a call from someone who refuses to identify themselves asking you if you'd be willing to edit a couple hidden configuration files and restart your system, then you have the Linux version.

  • by AnalPerfume ( 1356177 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:25AM (#27646535)
    Bear arms are fine if the bear in question is still attached to them, and in a fit state to fight and clued in enough to the cause to fight FOR you. If not, then the right to bear arms is pointless, you may as well have the right to shit on the moon.
  • by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:28AM (#27646587) Homepage Journal

    Someone once said "I never meta dupe I didn't like."

    That someone was not me.

  • KISS (Score:5, Funny)

    by iYk6 ( 1425255 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:32AM (#27646641)

    Nice ideas. Here is all I had: Demand that the info be in ASCII text, and download it with wget.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:34AM (#27646677)
    Or am i just a European speaking to an American ; ).

    No, just an asshole acting smugly superior.
  • by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:35AM (#27646705)

    That's MY IP address too! Is the FBI hacking my computer as well?

    Remember kids, only criminals use proxies. And only criminals use "an alternate operating system, with a black screen and white characters".

  • by Professor_UNIX ( 867045 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:36AM (#27646713)

    Don't you watch the movies? They would've backtraced his IP address through their firewall with a Visual Basic program within seconds. You need to bounce around the world through at LEAST 15 anonymizing proxies for that to work and give you a minute or two of time to taunt them before you disconnect at the last minute just as the blue blipping blob on their VB.Net trace program is about to pinpoint your location in North America as the program starts zooming in on your location with Google Maps.

    Click! All they know is you're in the northeast, but you told them that already right before you disconnected when you said you were calling them from a payphone across the street. When they rush out of their building all they find is an empty payphone with an acoustic coupler attached to the handset and interfaced to some kind of prepaid cell phone. You put down your binoculars that you've been using to watch the situation from the 5th floor of your hotel down the street and press a button on your computer which detonates the C4 conveniently hidden behind the payphone. Did they really think a silly god damn Windows spyware program was going to take you down so easily?

  • by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:41AM (#27646777) Homepage Journal

    You talked about me saying that before.

  • by rs232 ( 849320 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:43AM (#27646825)
    Just goes to show that you shouldn't try your hand at being a career criminal, armed with nothing more than a MSP [www.microsoft.com] credential.
  • by Missing_dc ( 1074809 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:53AM (#27646971)

    Mental note for future reference...

    when requesting a private website to extort money, post the credentials here or /b/ on 4chan.

    Let them deal with all that was posted AND handle the bandwidth consumption.
    then report the site to another agency for kiddie pics ( or kittie pics, knowing /b/)

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:4, Funny)

    by oneTheory ( 1194569 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:00PM (#27647085)

    It's worth noting that in order to use CIPAV, the FBI has to get court approval after explaining how the software can help stop a crime.

    +1 funny

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fred_A ( 10934 ) <fred@f r e d s h o m e . o rg> on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:24PM (#27647491) Homepage

    Hey my computer is acting FUNNY since I checked that wiki site about CIPAV.

    Zippy ? Is that you ?

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:3, Funny)

    by Intron ( 870560 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:27PM (#27647531)

    It might just because I've been skimming, but I haven't been able to find much by way of technical detail on how CIPAV works, namely what vector it uses to infect target machines, and what operating system(s) it "supports."

    This website would like to install an Active-X control. Click yes to allow or no to cancel.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:36PM (#27647689)

    Being an asshole and being correct are not mutually exclusive.

    If that's the case, then you are absolutely correct.

  • by shawn(at)fsu ( 447153 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:38PM (#27647723) Homepage

    Okay this is what you need to do. First take off the tinfoil hat. Next is go outside, you really need to get some sunlight.

  • by eam ( 192101 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:43PM (#27647821)

    > Reason for requested leave: Starting an evil empire

    Trust me, it's not as great as it sounds. The overhead is a lot more than you expect. Everyone figures they'll just steal a couple nuclear warheads and they're in business, but they never think about the essentials. Do you know how much toilet paper your evil lair will go through in a week? Even though you have the contribution jar next to the coffee maker, no one ever pitches in unless you happen to be standing there. With the downturn in the economy, you don't have the same staffing issues as you normally do, but finding decent henchmen is always a chore. The ones you do find are all, "We want dental!", "We need flex time!", "Respect me as an equal!", and "Oh God, no, save me, IT BURNS!!!" I mean, come on, what am I your mommy?

    You go through all that, then in the middle of one of your best speeches, some moron running around in a tuxedo blows it all up with a can of hairspray and a laser beam built into a wristwatch.

    Seriously.

  • Nice. See if you can figure out my identity from my IP address, ignoring of course that it's right there in my email address. Here's my IP:
    192.168.1.42
    Good luck!

  • by jollyreaper ( 513215 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @12:57PM (#27648093)

    Don't you watch the movies? They would've backtraced his IP address through their firewall with a Visual Basic program within seconds. You need to bounce around the world through at LEAST 15 anonymizing proxies for that to work and give you a minute or two of time to taunt them before you disconnect at the last minute just as the blue blipping blob on their VB.Net trace program is about to pinpoint your location in North America as the program starts zooming in on your location with Google Maps.

    Click! All they know is you're in the northeast, but you told them that already right before you disconnected when you said you were calling them from a payphone across the street. When they rush out of their building all they find is an empty payphone with an acoustic coupler attached to the handset and interfaced to some kind of prepaid cell phone. You put down your binoculars that you've been using to watch the situation from the 5th floor of your hotel down the street and press a button on your computer which detonates the C4 conveniently hidden behind the payphone. Did they really think a silly god damn Windows spyware program was going to take you down so easily?

    And you were getting a blowjob from Halle Berry the whole time! Add in some more titty and I think we have a blockbuster.

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:3, Funny)

    by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @01:02PM (#27648187) Homepage Journal
    "And don't use windows at all."

    Yeah, that was my first thought too.

    I wonder if they have a Linux variant? That would be likely hard to do though, wouldn't it? I mean, unless you were stupid enough to execute a strange file you received from the FBI....

  • by Shakrai ( 717556 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @01:18PM (#27648437) Journal

    Hey, that's my IP address! drinkypoo hacked my computer! Where's the FBI when I need them?

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:4, Funny)

    by Arthur Grumbine ( 1086397 ) * on Monday April 20, 2009 @01:29PM (#27648655) Journal
    I'm sorry but that house analogy dcoesn't work for me, can you explain it using cars?
  • by sootman ( 158191 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @01:57PM (#27649087) Homepage Journal

    Actually, the FBI can't tell the difference between a criminal and a suspected criminal. In the U.S., it takes a jury (or a guilty plea) to do that.

    I was watching some show that had a car chase filmed from a helicopter. Guy had a semi and was wreaking havoc, driving through roadblocks, ramming police cars, going so far as to use his truck to push other cars out of the way when he hit some stopped traffic on the freeway. Finally he's off the road, surrounded by police cars, gets out of his truck, starts fighting, the police eventually get him into the back of a cruiser, the whole thing has been filmed, and the reporter comes on the mic and says "the police are now taking the SUSPECT into custody"... it always floors me when I see something like this and hear the word "suspect." I know, I know: legal terminology, due process, reporter CYAing so he doesn't get sued for slander or libel (I always forget--whichever one doesn't need to be printed) but still, it just makes me laugh out loud every time.

  • by PingXao ( 153057 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @04:50PM (#27652229)

    I've seen the word "meatspace" in use for almost a decade. Welcome to the world.

  • Re:CIPAV (Score:3, Funny)

    by kasperd ( 592156 ) on Monday April 20, 2009 @06:19PM (#27653515) Homepage Journal

    I mean, unless you were stupid enough to execute a strange file you received from the FBI....

    Wait. Are you telling me those emails I received from FBI with an attached program I had to run were actually real?

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