| |
|
Thursday, February 1, 2007
|
|
'Full-Pipe' FBI Internet Monitoring Questionably Legal. CNet is running a piece looking at what they refer to as a 'questionably legal' internet surveillance technique being employed by the FBI. In situations where isolating a specific IP address for a suspect is not possible, the FBI has taken to 'full-pipe' surveillance: all activity for a bank of IPs is recorded, and then data mining is used to attempt to isolate their target. The questionable legality of this situation results from a requirement that, under federal law, the FBI is required to use 'minimization'. The article describes it this way: "Federal law says that agents must 'minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception' and keep the supervising judge informed of what's happening. Minimization is designed to provide at least a modicum of privacy by limiting police eavesdropping on innocuous conversations." Full-pipe surveillance would seem to abandon that principle in favor of getting to the target faster. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
10:36:41 PM 
|
|
With so many fake IDs in play it was unclear to police exactly who
they had in custody. Then as they read Thomas his rights, he told them:
"Get me some federal agents and I'll give you a case involving the
Russians and millions of dollars."
Thus was the beginning of Thomas' turn to the other side. For 18
months beginning in April 2003, Thomas worked as a "paid asset" for the
FBI running a website for identity and credit card thieves from a
government-supplied apartment in the tony Queen Anne neighborhood of
Seattle.
From bedrise to bedrest, seven days a week, he rode the boards and
forums of his and other carding sites using the online nickname El
Mariachi. He recorded private messages and IRC chats for the FBI as
"carders" schemed to, among other things, sell stolen credit and debit
card numbers, defraud the George Bush and John Kerry campaign sites,
drain hundreds of thousands of dollars from bank and investment
accounts, sell access to Paris Hilton's T-Mobile account and run
phishing scams against U.S. Bank and the FDIC. He did it all while
battling denial-of-service attacks against his site and dodging
attempts by his old partner Taylor and other carders to track his
whereabouts and out him as a fed.
Just as his enemies were closing in on him in September 2004, the
FBI pulled the plug on his work and cut him loose. But not before
Thomas had given authorities a valuable look at the internet's
underworld, even though the strain of leading a double life nearly
broke him.
10:33:14 PM
|
|
I Was a Cybercrook for the FBI. Hoi Polloi writes "Wired News has a series starting on internet crime. The first piece they have up covers the story of a cybercrook who specialized in credit card fraud. Caught in a sting operation in November of 2002, the man who identified himself as 'El Mariachi' on message boards would lead a double life for the next two years working for the FBI. As he reported on credit card scammers, dodged his former associates, and stopped criminals from defrauding the 2004 presidential campaign, he also tried to keep his life together. A fascinating tale that looks at the face of modern crime, and crime-stopping techniques." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
10:29:02 PM
|
|
More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies say they have
been pressured to remove references to "climate change" and "global
warming" from a range of documents, including press releases and
communications with Congress. Roughly the same number say appointees
altered the meaning of scientific findings on climate contained in
communications related to their research.
These findings, part of a new report compiled by two watchdog
groups, shed new light on complaints by a scattering of scientists over
the past year who have publicly complained that Bush administration
appointees have tried to mute or muzzle what researchers have to say
about global warming. "We are beyond the anecdotal," says Francesca Grifo, director of the
scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS), one of the two groups, referring to press reports of a dozen
instances of interference that have emerged over the past 12 months.
"We now have evidence to support the view that this problem goes deeper
than just these few high-profile cases."
Global-warming science must be accurately represented to enable
lawmakers to craft adequate policies to control the problem and adapt
to climate change, Dr. Grifo says. Scientists at the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and other agencies working on
climate-related issues are doing excellent work. "But it's under
threat, and they are struggling to get their results out" to the
general public, she says.
Grifo described some of the report's findings during hearings
Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
and during a press briefing afterward. The two groups say they will
release additional material next week, when the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation holds similar hearings.
10:09:56 PM
|
|
Congress Hears From Muzzled Scientists.
BendingSpoons writes "More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies have been pressured to remove the phrases 'global warming' and 'climate change'
from various documents. The documents include press releases and, more
importantly, communications with Congress. Evidence of this sort of
political interference has been largely anecdotal to date, but is now
detailed in a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings on this issue Tuesday;
the hearing began by Committee members, including most Republicans,
stating that global warming is happening and greenhouse gas emissions
from human activity are largely to blame. The OGR hearings presage a
landmark moment in climate change research: the release of the 2007
report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC
report, drafted by 1,250 scientists and reviewed by an additional 2,500
scientists, is expected to state that 'there is a 90% chance humans are responsible for climate change' -- up from the 2001 report's 66% chance. It probably won't make for comfortable bedtime reading; 'The future is bleak', said scientists." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
10:05:52 PM
|
|
Hours after meeting with Verisign yesterday at DEMO 07 to discuss that company's major anti-identity theft initiative
comes news from a trio of leading financial firms that this ongoing
crisis of consumer confidence -- the bane of retailers both online and
off -- is already well under control, with the number of victims down
12% last year over 2005.
Pop the corks? ... Well, there's every reason to hope that this
report reflects an emerging new reality ... as well as every reason to
remain skeptical. The problem with vendor-sponsored surveys of this
nature, of course, is that they make it difficult to overlook the
obvious self-interest of the parties involved. The e-commerce world as
a whole has been in full panic mode over the public's increasing
wariness about doing business online. All would hail anything that
might lessen that unease.So this poll offers such hope, grain of salt
and all. The 2007 Identity Fraud Survey Report paid for by Visa, Wells
Fargo and CheckFree contends that:
9:55:57 PM
|
|
Survey Indicates ID Theft May Be Diminishing. netbuzz passed us a link discussing a survey conducted by major credit firms. Keeping in mind the source (CheckFree, Visa, and WellsFargo), the results indicate identity theft may be on the downswing as consumers wise up to scammers. The number of respondents that reported a fraudulent account created with a stolen identity dropped by a full half percentage point between 2005 and 2006. Overall fraud apparently dropped by some 12% over last year, representing $6.4 billion in fraud reduction. Again, consider the source: identity fraud is still apparently costing some $49.3 billion annually. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
9:52:57 PM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 3/4/07; 10:37:46 AM.
|
|
|
