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How reliable is DNA in identifying suspects? - Via Los Angeles Times :
A discovery leads to questions about whether the odds of people sharing genetic profiles are sometimes higher than portrayed. Calling the finding meaningless, the FBI has sought to block such inquiry.
State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles.
The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.
The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white.
In the years after her 2001 discovery, Troyer found dozens of similar matches -- each seeming to defy impossible odds.
As word spread, these findings by a little-known lab worker raised questions about the accuracy of the FBI's DNA statistics and ignited a legal fight over whether the nation's genetic databases ought to be opened to wider scrutiny. read more »
FBI Fights Testing For False DNA Matches - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
Statesman writes "The Los Angeles Times reports that an Arizona crime lab technician found two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles, so similar that they would ordinarily be accepted in court as a match, but one felon was black and the other white. The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. Dozens of similar matches have been found, and these findings raise questions about the accuracy of the FBI's DNA statistics. Scientists and legal experts want to test the accuracy of official statistics using the nearly 6 million profiles in CODIS, the national system that includes most state and local databases. The FBI has tried to block distribution of the Arizona results and is blocking people from performing similar searches using CODIS. A legal fight is brewing over whether the nation's genetic databases ought to be opened to wider scrutiny. At stake is the credibility of the odds often cited in DNA cases, which can suggest an all but certain link between a suspect and a crime scene."
DoJ Policy Would Sanction Racial Profiling, Let FBI Target Americans Without Cause - Via Threat Level:
The Justice Department is considering establishing a new policy that would allow the FBI to target Americans for investigation even in the absence of evidence or other compelling indications that the person was breaking a law, according to the Associated Press.
The policy, being considered as part of the attorney general's guidelines to the FBI, would allow the agency to conduct racial profiling -- potentially singling out Muslim- and Arab-Americans -- and to open preliminary terrorism investigations against targets simply on the basis of patterns established through data mining public records and other information.
The agency would be allowed to profile targets based on their race and activities, such as travel to the Middle East or any other part of the world associated with terrorism. But race would be only one factor in the decision to open an investigation. read more »
New FBI Database to Include Photos and Palm Prints - Via Threat Level:
Lockheed Martin has been tapped by the FBI to develop a system for storing and analyzing more biometric markers to augment the fingerprint collection system the agency already maintains. The Next Generation Identification (NGI) system will store photographs and palm prints, according to http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4270770.html?pag...
">a story in Popular Mechanics, and may even include iris scans.
With regard to photographs, the FBI says this would involve images of distinctive physical markers, such as tattoos and scars, that could help identify a suspect, but an FBI spokesman says the photo database could also become a basis for a facial recognition system and iris scans.
The FBI, anticipating opposition to the plan from privacy advocates, says the database isn't cause for alarm since the agency plans to collect the extra data only from the same people from which they already collect fingerprints.
Lockheed Martin also developed the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS).
(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level.)
Crooks Nab Citibank ATM Codes, Steal Millions - Via Slashdot :
An anonymous reader writes
"Citibank is reissuing ATM cards following a December server breach in which hackers stole customer PIN codes, Wired reports. In recent months the FBI has arrested 10 people in the New York area who were allegedly involved in using the codes to steal over $2 million from Citibank checking and savings accounts, including two Ukrainian immigrants who were each caught with $800,000 in cash stashed in boxes and shopping bags in their homes. Some of the suspects are cooperating, telling the feds that they've been working for a Russian hacker. They use magstripe writers to encode the stolen account numbers onto blank cards, then hit ATMs in New York, and transfer 70% of the loot back to Russia."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot .)
Journalists Win Appeal In FBI Brutality Case - Via American Civil Liberties Union:
SAN JUAN, PR - A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that an unprovoked attack on journalists by FBI agents would clearly violate the Fourth Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed an earlier decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of journalists who were kicked, punched and pepper sprayed by FBI agents as they attempted to report on the search of a San Juan apartment.
"This decision makes clear the FBI cannot exert excessive force and intimidation every time it wants to avoid public scrutiny," said Catherine Crump, staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. "By reinstating our lawsuit, the appeals court will let us continue fighting for the principle that reporters should be able to approach law enforcement officers without fear of harassment." read more »
Citibank Hack Blamed for Alleged ATM Crime Spree - Via Threat Level:
A computer intrusion into a Citibank server that processes ATM withdrawals led to two Brooklyn men making hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals from New York City cash machines in February, pocketing at least $750,000 in cash, according to federal prosecutors.
The ATM crime spree is apparently the first to be publicly linked to the breach of a major U.S. bank's systems, experts say.
"We've never heard of PINs coming out of the bank environment," says Dan Clements, CEO of the fraud watchdog company CardCops, who monitors crime forums for stolen information.
Credit card and ATM PIN numbers show up often enough in underground trading, but they're invariably linked to social engineering tricks like phishing attacks, "shoulder surfing" and fake PIN pads affixed to gas station pay-at-the-pump terminals.
But if federal prosecutors are correct, the Citbank intrusion is an indication that even savvy consumers who guard their ATM cards and PIN codes can fall prey to the growing global cyber-crime trade. read more »
Mobile Phone Number Moving Caused Feds to Wiretap Wrong American - Via Threat Level:
In poring through the latest round of documents the FBI turned over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation about how the FBI legally plugs into the nation's telephone system, THREAT LEVEL discovered that the nation's secret spy court repeatedly questioned the FBI in 2005 and 2006 about whether the Bureau was exceeding its wiretap authority.
But there were other fine eavesdropping nuggets in those pages, including info on when the FBI learned to wiretap VOIP calls, how number portability messed with FBI taps, and a moment of candor from an FBI technician about how the FBI's wiretapping software could work with the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. read more »
Secret Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network - Via Threat Level:
Does the FBI track cellphone users' physical movements without a warrant? Does the Bureau store recordings of innocent Americans caught up in wiretaps in a searchable database? Does the FBI's wiretap equipment store information like voicemail passwords and bank account numbers without legal authorization to do so?
That's what the nation's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court wanted to know, in a series of secret inquiries in 2005 and 2006 into the bureau's counterterrorism electronic surveillance efforts, revealed for the first time in newly declassified documents.
The inquires are the first publicly known questioning of the FBI's post-9/11 surveillance activities by the secret court, which has historically approved nearly every wiretap application submitted to it. The court handles surveillance requests in counterterrorism and foreign espionage investigations. The inquiries add to questions surrounding how the FBI has used the broad powers handed to it by Congress in the 2001 USA Patriot Act, including the FBI's admitted abuse of so-called National Security Letters to get stored telephone and financial records. read more »
Scott Calls for Reinstatement of Critical Safeguards on FBI Spying - Via American Civil Liberties Union:
Washington, DC -- The ACLU commends Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) for introducing H. Res. 1211, a resolution calling on Congress to reinstate the pre-Ashcroft guidelines, which provide stronger protections from unwarranted, domestic FBI spying for ordinary Americans. On May 30, 2002 Attorney General John Ashcroft adopted his own guidelines in order to loosen the internal policies that guide federal investigations. These guidelines have enabled have enabled the Department of Justice and the FBI to track Americans’ dissent against the Bush administration and the government without showing cause or evidence of any criminal activity.
The guidelines in place prior to May 2002 had worked for more than a quarter century to protect civil liberties while permitting surveillance. In fact, the post-9/11 Ashcroft guidelines negated legal protections created by Attorney General Edward Levi in the Ford administration without having much impact on terrorism at all. read more »
Legislative Action Needed to Correct FBI Misuse of National Security Letters - Via Center for Democracy and Technology:
Widespread errors in the use of National Security Letters requires legislative action, says a CDT paper released today. The documents are used by the FBI when seeking records containing sensitive personal information. Successive Inspector General reports have uncovered abuses and mistakes by the FBI in issuing the NSLs. The CDT Policy Post says that FBI self-policing doesn't work. CDT believes there should be a more exacting standard for issuing NSLs and that prior judicial authorization should be required when sensitive personal information is sought.
(Read Original Article - Via Center for Democracy and Technology.)
Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed 'National Security Letter' to Internet Archive - Via Threat Level:
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking FBI head Robert Mueller to explain why the feds sought records from the Internet Archive, a digital library, using a controversial administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which is intended for a communications service providers.
The Internet Archive, a digital library of the web and media, beat the November 26 NSL with the help of attorneys at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. In April, the FBI agreed to withdraw the request for records on a Internet Archive user and lift the gag order that typically attaches to such requests.
The six senators sent Mueller a letter Thursday, asking him to explain what happened and to find out if the FBI reported the incident to an oversight board as a possible violation of federal law. read more »
Making Surveillance for the FBI Easy - Via ACLU Blog - Privacy & Technology:
Last night, Hasan Elahi, an artist and San Jose State professor, was a guest on The Colbert Report. In all his bleach-blond glory, Elahi describes for Colbert the experience of being stopped in a Detroit airport and questioned by the FBI in 2002. (The FBI never confirmed that Elahi's name is on the terrorist watch list…but being stopped and questioned at an airport gives a pretty good indication that he was.) After being cleared of any suspicion, he was told that he had to "check in" with the FBI periodically. He did the FBI one better by creating TrackingTranscience.com, in which he surveils himself in real time—his current location is always available at the website. He also takes hundreds of pictures of his whereabouts and uploads them to the site, so if the FBI wants to know what he had to eat (the man consumes a lot of meat), where he went to the bathroom, or his credit card expenses, it's all online—easy breezy for the FBI to keep track of him! read more »
FBI Practices Need Strict Oversight, ACLU Says - Via American Civil Liberties Union:
Washington, DC – As FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared before Congress today, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the House Judiciary Committee to ask him the “hard questions.”
“Director Mueller has plenty to answer for,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The FBI’s track record of late has been dismal. Members of the committee should take this opportunity to push for real answers to questions about National Security Letters, delays in the naturalization process and the FBI’s role in torture and anti-terrorism policies set by the administration.” read more »
ACLU Applauds Senate Scrutiny of Overbroad NSL Authority - Via American Civil Liberties Union:
Washington, DC – As an overbroad and often-abused power is examined today by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union urged members of the committee to thoroughly question its witnesses before marking up legislation aimed at fixing the problem. The "National Security Letter Reform Act" introduced by committee member Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI), would narrow the scope of National Security Letters (NSLs) and curb abuse by federal law enforcement. NSLs are used to obtain access to personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit reporting agencies. Recipients of the NSLs are generally forbidden, or "gagged," from disclosing that they have received the letters.
"As we’ve seen, the broader the NSL statute is, the more likely it is to be abused," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Senator Feingold’s bill will narrow the reach of NSLs, preserve judicial oversight and put the burden on the government to prove that secrecy is needed before imposing draconian gag orders. read more »
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