Insight On FBI Hacking Ops 137
New submitter krakman writes "The Washington Post has an interesting story about how the FBI can investigate and collect details from computers over the net, without knowing anything about the computer location. Here's an example of the FBI's network investigative techniques: 'The man who called himself "Mo" had dark hair, a foreign accent and — if the pictures he e-mailed to federal investigators could be believed — an Iranian military uniform. When he made a series of threats to detonate bombs at universities and airports across a wide swath of the United States last year, police had to scramble every time. Mo remained elusive for months, communicating via e-mail, video chat and an Internet-based phone service without revealing his true identity or location, court documents show. ... The FBI’s elite hacker team designed a piece of malicious software that was to be delivered secretly when Mo signed on to his Yahoo e-mail account, from any computer anywhere in the world, according to the documents. The goal of the software was to gather a range of information — Web sites he had visited and indicators of the location of the computer — that would allow investigators to find Mo and tie him to the bomb threats. ... Even though investigators suspected that Mo was in Iran, the uncertainty around his identity and location complicated the case. Had he turned out to be a U.S. citizen or a foreigner living within the country, a search conducted without a warrant could have jeopardized his prosecution. ...But, [a court document] said, Mo’s computer did send a request for information to the FBI computer, revealing two new IP addresses in the process. Both suggested that, as of last December, Mo was still in Tehran.'"
Another Ministry of Propaganda piece. (Score:1, Interesting)
WTF is point of this article?
So many details, stories about asking for court order when it was reported that agency ignored 1000 times similar requests in the past.
Iran is bad so drums get louder and louder again. So pathetic.
Re:Axis of evil, again (Score:2, Interesting)
Could be that the reason some Iranians dislike the US is because we along with Britan kind of overthrew their democratcially elected prime minister Mossadegh back in 1953 and imposed the Shah.
Re:Axis of evil, again (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, besides supplying training, logistical and intelligence support, safe refuge, and munitions to jihadists
Remember Iran-Contra [wikipedia.org]? Oh those evil Iranians, arming rebels and fomenting insurrection abroad.
But really, that's all ancient history.
Love picking at that scab, don't you? How were we getting along with Germany 32 years after our little kerfuffle with the Nazis? Did we stay this pissed off with them? Or is it a racial/religious thing?
That at the very least will cause Saudi Arabia and any others that possibly can to acquire nukes,
Muslim forces already have nukes. In fact, the same people who gave shelter to bin Laden. And I haven't heard a peep out of them. So perhaps the 'nutcase Imams' are a bit more level headed than you give them credit.