Navy Seal's Lawyers Received Emails Embedded With Tracking Software (theguardian.com) 65
An anonymous reader shares a report: Military prosecutors in the case of a US navy Seal charged with killing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017 installed tracking software in emails sent to defense lawyers and a reporter in an apparent attempt to discover who was leaking information to the media, according to lawyers who said they received the corrupted messages. The defense attorneys said the intrusion may have violated constitutional protections against illegal searches, guarantees to the right to a lawyer and freedom of the press.
"I've seen some crazy stuff but for a case like this it's complete insanity," said attorney Timothy Parlatore. "I was absolutely stunned, especially given the fact that it's so clear the government has been the one doing the leaking." Parlatore represents Edward Gallagher, the special operations chief who has pleaded not guilty to a murder count in the death of an injured teenage militant he allegedly stabbed to death in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher's platoon commander, Lt Jacob Portier, is fighting charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly conducting Gallagher's re-enlistment ceremony next to the corpse. Gallagher's case has prompted intense media interest and become a cause celebre on the right. Donald Trump has demanded the case proceed quickly.
"I've seen some crazy stuff but for a case like this it's complete insanity," said attorney Timothy Parlatore. "I was absolutely stunned, especially given the fact that it's so clear the government has been the one doing the leaking." Parlatore represents Edward Gallagher, the special operations chief who has pleaded not guilty to a murder count in the death of an injured teenage militant he allegedly stabbed to death in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher's platoon commander, Lt Jacob Portier, is fighting charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly conducting Gallagher's re-enlistment ceremony next to the corpse. Gallagher's case has prompted intense media interest and become a cause celebre on the right. Donald Trump has demanded the case proceed quickly.
Guys, (Score:5, Informative)
It's Navy SEALs, not Seals.
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Only if you're watching Bojack Horseman.
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Touche. I like the cut of your jib.
I would also add Monsanto. Pretty sad to see "Dow Chemicals is the new Monsanto."
Tracking software? (Score:3, Interesting)
So, did some attorney execute an attachment in an email, or do they consider their lack of ability to use an email reader that doesn't automatically render HTML attempting to load a tracking pixel as software installation?
Either way it's the recipient or user's admin issue.
Re: Tracking software? (Score:2)
It's the admin/user's job to see that the attempt fails but it's the sender's job not to make the attempt. Works that way with many laws.
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Expected, the word is 'expected'.
All constitutional protections are off, it's our allies that spy on on 'us', 'our' spooks spy on the allies population, for them. Abracadabra, all legal and (sort of) open, since 1946. '3 eyes' not even disputed, but still somehow a 'conspiracy theory'.
TFA is about keystone cops at courthouse. The smart way is to make the tracker a logo page header, not a single pixel. The page header works just as good and looks like typical corporate bandwidth wasting bullshit.
Bet '
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No, but it's perfectly ok for the government to "install tracking software in emails" because that doesn't even make any sense. I'm also ok with the government digitizing icecream, carbonizing alligators, and GUIing visual basic to get IP addresses. What is your objection to these activities?
Oh.
I take it back. You're totally right.
Not a single one of these nonsense activities can possibly be related to a valid function of government, so therefore they are prohi
Re:Tracking software? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, despite your stereotypical blame-the-computer-user attitude, it is not. It's a trespass on the user's property [wikipedia.org] unauthorized by a warrant, and in this particular case a search of a legal defense team's communications within itself and with its authorized agents (defense experts, etc.), which is definitely an issue that the presiding authority will lay at the feet of the prosecution in the absence of an applicable exception (e.g., crime-fraud exception) and good cause shown.
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By this logic, sending me HTML crap with javascript and tracking images, is a crime. Sounds good.
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Wow. You've stumbled onto the fact that private parties can do things that the government cannot and taken it in an entirely incorrect direction. Good job.
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Either way it's the recipient or user's admin issue.
Well...yes and no.
Yes, everyone should know by now not to execute random shit they receive in an email, but sadly not everyone does. I can't blame my 87-year old uncle for doing stupid shit like that, even though he should know better.
And no, because sending malicious executables is probably illegal under some law somewhere. Maybe not, but I'd guess that a motivated prosecutor could find something to hem you up with if he really wanted to. With all the laws on the books I wouldn't doubt there's something th
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Does not matter much whether or not you clicked it in legal terms, that they tried is crime enough and this should be investigated and they prosecutors should be prosecuted.
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They NOTICED it, and confronted the prosecution about it. The attempt by the prosecution was very likely illegal if they didn't have prior authorization to do so, and could jeopardize the entire prosecution if the judge didn't authorize it in advance and decides to sanction the prosecution for it, the judge COULD dismiss the charges with prejudice for misconduct on the government's part.
Yup. Very illegal.
Unfortunately it almost never results in ANY consequences. First off, that kind of nonsense is rarely discovered. When it is discovered it rarely results in any changes. When it is discovered AND actions are taken, usually the most that happens is the judge will give a stern written letter to the prosecution.
Prosecutor violations are sadly common, but rarely prosecuted. Even when a prosecutor's illegal acts are admitted to in court and result in years of illegal imprisonment from a
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Or simpler, if you get shot it's your own fault for not dodging the bullet.
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"The right to a lawyer is meaningless if the government can spy on your lawyer"
Sending unencrypted email to anyone is the same as sending private or sensitive information on a postcard. SMTP doesn't mandate any form of encryption.
But, that's beside the fact, the article doesn't contain sufficient depth for us to know what was done. Besides that, is a embedded HTML sufficient to be considered tracking software?
The tried to get too fancy (Score:5, Interesting)
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When you change things like "car is red" to "car is blue" in a legal document sent between prosecution & defense lawyers, you are going to have a very bad day in court.
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Except you get a little more subtle than that.
You change "Mr. Smith said to Mr. Trump" to "It was said by Mr. Smith to" or "Mr. Trump heard Mr. Smith remark" or "Mr. Smith remarked to Mr. Trump" and so on... Throw it full of different synonyms and add a few more bits.
These guys are lawyers. They may be evil, but they're unlikely to be dumb.
AC
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These guys are lawyers. They may be evil, but they're unlikely to be dumb.
You underestimate the stupidity of lawyers. Seriously, there are a lot of really dumb lawyers. Maybe not in the "don't know how to read" sense, but certainly in the "don't know how to think" sense.
For just one example, you should really check out Rekieta Law's LOLsuit series on YouTube covering the adventures of attorney Kevin Landau. It's pretty epic.
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No need for any tracking scripts.
There's an unsubstantiated rumor (one we mustn't let the ChiComs catch wind of) that there are now actual Millenials at the Pentagon.
Yes, it's that bad.
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Sending a malicious program is essentially the same as throwing a knife at someone. You might miss or they might duck so they don't get hit, but you still threw a lethal weapon at someone. Blaming the guy that took a knife to the chest because he didn't duck is ignoring the fact that the knife should not have been thrown in the first place.
Details, please? (Score:3)
What was the 'tracking software' and how was it found?
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What was the 'tracking software' and how was it found?
Read the article. It describes those details, including precisely where in the email it was placed.
Was that tracking thing still running? (Score:2)
Darn it, we told Jimmy to be sure and turn that off after testing it.
That was never meant to be sent on any official email.....
Who cares where the lawyers are? (Score:2)
But where the Navy Seals are, that matters.
The German Army f.ex. plans to give crippled smartphones to their soldiers (phone and SMS only)
So the soldiers use unsecured private phones and the potential enemy just needs a teen hacker to see them hiding in that forest by the border.
Emails embedded with tracking software? (Score:2)
Otherwise known as a webbug [techtarget.com] and tracking only works if you use a browser as an email client that renders HTML and make a connection back to a remote server.
It's a free-for-all in the U-S-of-A (Score:2)