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FBI Used Spyware for Online Search

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the not-surprised-here dept.

juct writes "The FBI has used PC spyware for the first time to reveal the identity of an offender who sent bomb threats to a high school in Washington state. According to heise Security, a declaration from the FBI official who applied for the search warrant describes the mode of operation of the spyware which the FBI is using under the abbreviation CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier)."

4 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Please tell me why I should run Windows? by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Of course, the "if you have nothing to hide..." crowd are likely to be out, but what about rogue agents? What about investigations that target the wrong people by accident?

    I suspect that getting such a tool installed on my Linux box would be much harder.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  2. Re:More Firefighters Needed! by jsse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now I can see the purpose of Firehose now...

    It's now our fault in voting up a dupe, not /. editors, definitely not...

    Now /. needs to develop another system to penalize those who repeatedly vote a dupe, namely "List of idiotic dupers"

  3. Security through obscurity by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Well if you have nothing to hide and don't do anything that attracts attention, the security through obscurity principle kicks in.

    Sure some poor sap will be done over, but hopefully it won't be you.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  4. Re:Good ! by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The problem is, even with a warrant, how do you know the software they install isn't installed to make you look guilty? The software can do anything they tell it to do, would you be able to have the source code examined at your trial?