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.'"
Fan club (Score:4, Informative)
The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations
... and in LoveINT [go.com] cases too. If noone watches the watchers they will become stalkers too.
Re:Axis of evil, again (Score:4, Informative)
The US could turn virtually every major urban area of Iran into radioactive craters, could wipe out most of its navy and air force in 48 hours and likely most of its anti aircraft capacity in pretty short order as well.
Which won't stop or deter them at all.
When I think of major threats I think of Japan in WWII or the USSR during the Cold War.
Which tells me you haven't learned enough history or enough about the people we're talking about that control Iran, and their history & beliefs.
We're talking religious zealot nut cases that think dying for their deity is glorious and expected.
They don't have to strike the US. Just Israel.
Israel will launch a retaliatory nuke strike. The Persian Gulf will likely become blocked/blockaded or simply too dangerous along with the Suez Canal. Then, the whole region falls into chaos and anarchy, followed by the major powers going to war for power, ideology, and resources while the world economy and the US Dollar/US economy collapses.
Strat