Tag Archives: Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Now Has Surveillance Unit That Monitors Skype and Other Internet Communications
This past January, Bangladeshi terrorist Rajib Karim filed a complaint for not being able to use Skype so that he can make low cost calls to contact his family while he is in Jail. Terrorists are known for using Skype for conspiracy purposes. This is one of the biggest reasons why the FBI is getting ready to launch a surveillance unit that is capable of spying on Skype conversations and other Internet communications. The Domestic Communications Assistance Center (DCAC) is a collaboration between the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, and the DEA. All three agenices are building customized hardware to enable wiretapping on Internet conversations if they get a court order request. The DCAC will also be available for state, local, and federal police. The FBI is also working on an initiative to develop an automatic mass-monitoring computer application to analyze Facebook for crime-related comments.
Categories FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation
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FBI Fears Bitcoin As Target For Money Laundering
Bitcoins are a virtual currency that was created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source software that the currency was built on and the P2P network used to run the software. Millions of dollars of Bitcoin transactions take place every year. The FBI fears that the Bitcoin payment network could be a way to launder money and other criminal activity like hackers stealing from fellow Bitcoin users. According to a leaked FBI report, it would be difficult to track and identify anonymous Bitcoin users.
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DVDs and Blu-Rays Will Now Have Two Government Warnings
The U.S. government will now have two copyright notices in DVDs and Blu-rays being sold. Everyone knows the first label that warns people about how the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyright work is illegal and criminal copyright infringement is investigated by federal law enforcement, which can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The second label will be used for “educating” people that copyright infringement is not a victimless crime. Above is what the new message looks like (credit: Ars Technica).
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FBI Shuts Down MegaUpload.com As Swizz Beats Emerges As CEO
Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean is best known for working with some of the best hip hop artists and producing some of the best hits. It turns out that he is also presently the CEO of Megaupload and was responsible for enlisting celebrities like Diddy, Kanye West, will.i.am, Alicia Keys, and Kim Kardashian to appear in a song called “Mega Song.” He filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group for having the video taken down from YouTube. Now it appears that the FBI has shut down MegaUpload.com and four people have been arrested as suspects for being online pirates.
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The FBI May Have Inadvertently Agreed To Being Involved With Carrier IQ
The FBI used the Freedom of Information Act to inadvertently admit somehow being involved with Carrier IQ. Carrier IQ created network diagnostic software that was accused of collecting personal information. Government transparency blog MuckRock has filed for an FOIA release on the FBI’s use of Carrier IQ. The FBI said no and said the following:
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Categories Carrier IQ, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The FBI’s First Official App Helps Parents ID Missing Children
The FBI has launched Child ID, its first ever mobile app, as a way to “provide a convenient place to electronically store photos and vital information about your child.” TechCrunch reports that the app is currently available for iPhones and that other OS versions are on the way, and the FBI reminds everyone that a child goes missing in the US about every 40 seconds. The free app not only gives parents a quick way to show authorities the relevant information about their missing children, but also allows the parents to contact the appropriate authorities through the app. Current feedback on the new app complains that it isn’t password protected, but the FBI has been quick to update and will likely have a password lock on the app in the near future.
FBI Raids Apartment Of SAG Member Wes DeSoto For Allegedly Uploading The King’s Speech and Black Swan To The Pirate Bay
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the apartment Wes DeSoto, a member of the Screen Actors Guild. THe FBI believes that he was the first one to upload the movies The King’s Speech and Black Swan to The Pirate Bay in January. The FBI is also looking into whether DeSoto is part of The Pirate Bay pre-release movie-uploading group that is known as TiMPE.
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Yasir Afifi Suing FBI For Placing Tracking Gadget In His Car
A lawsuit by the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been filed on behalf of Yasir Afifi against the FBI. Afifi is a Muslim-American student that is of Egyptian descent. Last year Afifi found a strange gadget underneath his car when getting an oil change. He was scared that it was a pipe bomb so his friend posted photos of it on Reddit. The Reddit community confirmed that it was a GPS tracking device placed there by the FBI without a warrant. FBI agents learned that Afifi discovered the device and they demanded it back from him before he destroyed it since it is expensive. Below is a video discussing the lawsuit:
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FBI Raids The Houses Of Pro-Wikileaks Operation Payback Activists
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has executed over 40 search warrants for those involved with Operation Payback. Operation Payback was a group of hackers that took down the Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal websites using DDoS attacks out of Wikileaks retaliation. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal had dropped financial support for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange shortly after he released confidential government cables. The group behind Operation Payback is known as “Anonymous.”
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FBI Raids A Texas Hosting Company Believed To Be Involved In Hack Attacks Against PayPal
The FBI raided a hosting company based in Texas as part of investigation to find out who was behind the hack attack against PayPal. The FBI took a computer server and a couple of hard drives. PayPal officials “reported that an Internet activist group using the names ‘4chan’ and ‘Anonymous’ appeared to be organizing a distributed denial of service (“DDoS”) attack against the company” to the FBI. The attack against PayPal was part of a project called “Operation Payback.” Operation Payback was an organized attack to hack companies that froze or suspended WikiLeaks accounts. The FBI traced an IP address to Tailor Made Services, a firm based in Dallas that provides dedicated server hosting. [The Smoking Gun]