FBI Compromises Another Remailer 164
betterunixthanunix writes "Another remailer has been compromised by the FBI, who made a forensic image of the hard disk of a remailer located in Austria. The remailer operator has reissued the remailer keys, but warns that messages previously sent through the remailer could be decrypted. The operator also warns that law enforcement agents had an opportunity to install a back door, and that a complete rebuild of the system will take some time."
Re:Another question (Score:5, Informative)
The remailers are not the target, it's users are.
"Could be decrypted" (Score:4, Informative)
Not if they were encrypted to the end recipient's public key. If not, they were plaintext in transit and possibly on the ISP's server.
Re:remailer? (Score:2, Informative)
I'm going to take this opportunity to post a link to information about remailers, but I think you are an idiot for asking.
http://www.andrebacard.com/remail.html [andrebacard.com]
Re:remailer? (Score:5, Informative)
An anonymous remailer is a server that receives messages with embedded instructions on where to send them next, and that forwards them without revealing where they originally came from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_remailer [wikipedia.org]
Re:wtf fbi (Score:5, Informative)
If you read the thread, it was Austrian authorities that took the image at the request of U.S. authorities.
Re:wtf fbi (Score:4, Informative)
If that's true, I don't understand how this (from the summary above) is possible: "The operator also warns that law enforcement agents had an opportunity to install a back door"
Unless they just installed the backdoor into their image, for some reason. They would have had to have access to the live system to do this part.
Re:wtf fbi (Score:4, Informative)
Austrian Law Enforcement took a disk image, meaning they had direct access to the server. The Austrian's did this at the behest of the FBI. So yes, law enforcement could have installed a backdoor while they had access.
Re:So what this really says..... (Score:0, Informative)
They are investigating the Pitt Bomb Threat Emailer, obviously. Are you seriously suggesting that they should throw up their hands and give up because the perp used an anonymous remailer?
Re:wtf fbi (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Crime (Score:4, Informative)
Couldn't even bother to read the first paragraph of the article, eh?
Today, the police arrived with a court order that allowed them to
create a forensic disk image of the austria remailer. This apparently
was on request of the US authorities, related to the Pittsburgh bomb
threats. (emphasis mine)
It was the Austrian police who had a valid court order who 'intruded'. As for the 'added a backdoor':
Depending on how paranoid you are, you may assume the machine is
backdoored, since the authorities have had access.
Doesn't say the FBI ever had access. Doesn't say there IS a backdoor, just that if you're paranoid yo umay assume there is one.
Re:wtf fbi (Score:5, Informative)
Re:wtf fbi (Score:1, Informative)
1) Read the link first before freaking out. Austrian police did it at the request of the FBI.
2) While there are no details about why this occurred, the owner of the remailer suspects it has something to do with the bomb threats that have been happening for weeks now at the University of Pittsburgh. These threats are being delivered through the remailers and it would appear they hope to find information that might lead them to the individual responsible. In that case, this isn't a unilateral action to see what crime they can sniff out, but rather part of an active criminal investigation.
I'm not necessarily defending what the FBI is doing, but this article doesn't do much more than invoke FUD in the /. reader base by not elaborating.
Re:wtf fbi (Score:5, Informative)
The U.S. is not a democracy.
The U.S. is a Democratic Republic. Your vote is simply there to elect a representative of "the people". That elected person then votes how they see fit.
Its how easy these elected people can be payed off that's that problem.
Even "your" candidate is most likely being paid by somebody with a lot of money and an agenda.
Re:wtf fbi (Score:3, Informative)
Re:wtf fbi (Score:4, Informative)
In a pure democracy the people vote for *laws* not representatives. That's why the US is considered a Democratic Republic (or a *Representative* Democracy). It has nothing to do with the voting method and *everything* to do with what people get to vote for.