The FBI wants you to reboot your router NOW to help destroy a botnet In a public service announcement published Friday and noted by Ars Technica, and a new addition to aUS Department of Justice press release, the FBI explains that it’s hoping that your actions will help the US government destroy a botnet before a Russian hacking group, Sofacy, can harden the malware’s defenses. How would pressing a… Read More
Cops Around the Country Can Now Unlock iPhones, Records Show A Motherboard investigation has found that law enforcement agencies across the country have purchased GrayKey, a relatively cheap tool for bypassing the encryption on iPhones, while the FBI pushes again for encryption backdoors. Source: vice… Read More
The FBI could have broken into San Bernadino shooter’s phone without Apple The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last week released a new report that supports what EFF has long suspected: that the FBI’s legal fight with Apple in 2016 to create backdoor access to a San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone was more focused on creating legal precedent than it was on accessing the… Read More
The FBI Used Classified Hacking Tools in Ordinary Criminal Investigations The FBI’s Remote Operations Unit has hacking tools typically reserved for protecting national security. But an overlooked section of a new report says ROU has used these secret techniques in criminal cases. Source: vice… Read More
FBI again calls for magical solution to break into encrypted phones The FBI maintains an office, known as the National Domestic Communications Assistance Center (NDCAC), which actively provides technical assistance to local law enforcement in high-profile cases. In its most recently published minutes from May 2017, the NDCAC said that one of its goals is to make commercial tools like those from Israeli data extraction company Cellebrite… Read More
FBI’s Use of Paid Best Buy Informants Goes Deeper Than We Knew The existence of the Geek Squad informants was first revealed via the prosecution of a California doctor named Mark Rettenmaier. After Rettenmaier sent his computer to Geek Squad for repair in 2011, technicians working out of a massive Kentucky repair shop discovered thousands of images depicting child abuse on Rettenmaier’s device. Court filings later revealed… Read More