Unsealed Court Docs Show FBI Used Malware Like 'A Grenade' (vice.com) 59
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In 2013, the FBI received permission to hack over 300 specific users of dark web email service TorMail. But now, after the warrants and their applications have finally been unsealed, experts say the agency illegally went further, and hacked perfectly legitimate users of the privacy-focused service. "That is, while the warrant authorized hacking with a scalpel, the FBI delivered their malware to TorMail users with a grenade," Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told Motherboard in an email. The move comes after the ACLU pushed to unseal the case dockets in September. The Department of Justice recently decided to publish redacted versions of related documents. In 2013, the FBI seized Freedom Hosting, a service that hosted dark web sites, including a large number of child pornography sites and the privacy-focused email service TorMail. The agency then went on to deploy a network investigative technique (NIT) -- a piece of malware -- designed to obtain the real IP address of those visiting Freedom Hosting sites. According to the new documents, the NIT was used against users of 23 separate websites. As for TorMail, officials have maintained that the government obtained a warrant to deploy the NIT against specific users of the service. Now, we do know that to be true: recently unsealed affidavits include a total of over 300 redacted TorMail accounts that the FBI wanted to target. All of these accounts were allegedly linked to child pornography-related crimes, according to court documents. Importantly, the affidavits say that the NIT would only be used to "investigate any user who logs into any of the TARGET ACCOUNTS by entering a username and password." But, according to sources who used TorMail and previous reporting, the NIT was deployed before the TorMail login page was even displayed, raising the question of how the FBI could have possibly targeted specific accounts.
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"You're a putz!
-(((My in-laws))).
And these are the people picking... (Score:2, Funny)
the next President of the United States?
It's time to clean house (Score:4, Insightful)
From the director to the janitors, the FBI needs to be cleaned up. It's gotten to a point where J. Edgar is looking like a boy scout.
Re:It's time to clean house (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure he preferred to look like a girl scout.
--
BMO
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We can't clean house without cleaning the House. Tomorrow is our big chance to squander the opportunity. Since we can expect to see at least 95% of the same old faces, don't hold out any hope for any changes in the FBI, or any other part of the government. The election is the nation's reflection. Not exactly pretty, is it?
Re:It's time to clean house (Score:4, Insightful)
We can't clean house without cleaning the House. Tomorrow is our big chance to squander the opportunity. Since we can expect to see at least 95% of the same old faces, don't hold out any hope for any changes in the FBI, or any other part of the government. The election is the nation's reflection. Not exactly pretty, is it?
I was hardly offered anything other than Rs and Ds in general, so substantive change is miles away in any case from my perspective.
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All ballots are determined by the voters. There is no one else to blame. The process is clearly spelled out.
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All ballots are determined by the voters. There is no one else to blame. The process is clearly spelled out.
Yes, but not by me. There's a small matter of hundreds of millions of other people. So yes, there is someone else to blame, and it's not me.
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Just as long as you're not one of those blaming the 'money'. And chances are there are alternatives to vote for. If you're playing the 'lesser evil' game, then yes, you too, are to blame. 'Lesser evil' is what created the situation we are in. Even abstention becomes a better option in such a case.
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Just as long as you're not one of those blaming the 'money'. And chances are there are alternatives to vote for.
I vote for third parties and independents every time I get a chance, unless they are stark raving loony.
G-men, T-men, revenuers, too. (Score:2)
Real IP address? (Score:2)
My PC's real IP address is 192.168.0.101.
Presumably the malware was sending ip packets home, via a path other than tor, so the feds could see the IP address of the local NAT router.
This is a gaping privacy hole in the interwebz that could be fixed several ways in the local stack. E.G. by sandboxing a VM in which the browser sits and preventing its traffic going by a path other than tor. You'd need to prevent sandbox escape malware too, which is not so easy given the way that big software is built.
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Not all software is 'big' software [linuxbootdisks.com]
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There's nothing preventing you running an egress firewall. We used to have software firewalls for Windows that provided egress control, but then we got one from Microsoft that only pretends to — and gives you a false sense of security by sometimes asking for permission before an application is allowed to talk on the interwebs.
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Correct, all those years stuffing about with ipchains and iptables were wasted since the cheapest and nastiest *DSL: router lets you have almost as much control just ticking a few boxes on a web form. Going from zero knowledge to a decent firewall takes minutes now.
Don't trust the world with your PC or vice versa, stop it where the line comes in.
Re: Real IP address? (Score:1)
Your router is compromised, from the factory, by design.
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Why is the government using malware at all? (Score:1)
You'd think the government would team with vendors to patch every exploit so our computers are more secure and less likely to be hacked by bad guys. It is perfectly logical that the sheriffs across the USA do not have a master key to everyone's backdoor. If that key got out, the crooks could enter everyones house too. Why is it so hard to see backdoors for computers is just as bad and the same thing? With the government wanting to exploit computers, the bad guys can exploit them too.
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You'd think the government would team with vendors to patch every exploit so our computers are more secure and less likely to be hacked by bad guys. It is perfectly logical that the sheriffs across the USA do not have a master key to everyone's backdoor. If that key got out, the crooks could enter everyones house too. Why is it so hard to see backdoors for computers is just as bad and the same thing? With the government wanting to exploit computers, the bad guys can exploit them too.
The various LEAs would love a master house key as you suggest. First things first, however, The other thing you're missing is that all too often these days the "bad guys" *are* the government, so of course they'd love easy access, to your computer/phone and/or to your house. They simply realize that they need to have the former before they can achieve the latter.
Strat
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Yes your enemy built your roads, supplies clean water and
Guns won't free you. A lot of people working together was what freed you.
Don't be a lazy whiny prick - vote.
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lol the same government that starts wars, bullies and spies on our allies, confiscates people's lands in the name of eminent domain, violates the Fourth Amendment on a daily basis.
lol voting in a flawed system where you have two sides of the same coin as a choice.
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I always wonder why Americans vote only republicans or democrats, when it is clear that their candidates are chosen and guided (controlled) by the establishment machine and therefore cannot change anything important. Other candidates always get minimal amount of votes, yet I often notice such comments that there are only two.
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Do you have to pile anarchist shit on everything?
Wanting a government that obeys it's constitution and it's laws is "anarchist shit"? Just...wow. Extreme, much?
Yes your enemy built your roads, supplies clean water and...
Wrong. Government builds nothing, buys nothing, sells nothing, and owns nothing. The people do, have, and own all that. Those things you mention were all done by the people despite government greed, incompetence, corruption, cronyism, and general ham-handedness, not because of it. Government makes laws, collects taxes, and directs large armed men to imprison, kill, and/or destroy enemies of the nat
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One anarchist with a gun is just a red stain on the ground waiting to happen.
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You do have a say in your own destiny without being a sad red stain on the ground next to a gun you never had a chance to fire - VOTE.
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Guns won't free you.
Guns have freed every people who have thrown off a government since guns became widespread.
The world's largest democracy is the result of "NO GUNS". Gandhi/Civil disobedience/Non Violence movement was no match for Guns?
Today's society has no place for guns. Public unrest is what topples governments. Guns rebellions nowadays are replied by bombings. Guns are simply an answer to low self esteem.
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I'm sorry, but the rebellion of India against the British was partly *caused* by Britain attempting to enforce a gun ban in India.
Mahatma Gandhi was very much opposed to gun bans, as evidenced by one of his quotes:
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Hence also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defe
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It is perfectly logical that the sheriffs across the USA do not have a master key to everyone's backdoor. If that key got out, the crooks could enter everyones house too. Why is it so hard to see backdoors for computers is just as bad and the same thing?
Remember we live in an era where TSA certified luggage does have master keys, and as one would expect, they were eventually leaked.
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Not even leaked, the damn TSA decided to show them off for some publicity photos that were then printed and widely distributed.
Unbelievable incompetence, and it affects people who have never even been to the US but who find that most of the available luggage has these useless TSA locks.
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Malware reports it back for you from the users computer often getting around browsers with ip altering networks.
Its also court friendly as telling lawyers their client clicked something and they got discovered is a lot more easy that a sealed court to protect methods.
No Tor, Freenet. (Score:2)
none to fear (Score:2)
They are happy now (Score:2)
So, the FBI does illegal things (Score:2)
Kind of helps to understand why they won't go after politicians who do illegal things. In other words, *What do they call it when the assassin accuses the assassin?* This is a good example of 'Capoeira'. Everybody remains untouchable, but the spectacle is supreme.
J Edgar is still in charge of the FBI (Score:2, Offtopic)
Actually it makes no difference if he is dead, alive or none of the above. Nothing has changed since Hoover was in charge of the FBI. They don't care about the Constitution and are lawless, which means they act as if no law applies to what they do. Their agenda, which includes expected areas like going after bank robbers, kidnappers and organized crime also includes suppressing and criminalizing any attempt to al
I see what happened here. (Score:4, Insightful)
FBI: We want to hack a ton of computers belonging to people who are probably innocent.
Judge: Sorry, I can't issue a warrant for that.
FBI: We need to do this in order to catch monsters who sexually abuse children.
Judge: Fucking scum like that have no rights! You have my warrant, do whatever it takes!