Slashdot Mirror
FBI Posts Fake Hyperlinks To Trap Downloaders of Illegal Porn
mytrip brings us a story from news.com about an FBI operation in which agents posted hyperlinks which advertised child pornography, recorded the IP addresses of people who clicked the links, and then tracked them down and raided their homes. The article contains a fairly detailed description of how the operation progressed, and it raises questions about the legality and reliability of getting people to click "unlawful" hyperlinks. Quoting:
"With the logs revealing those allegedly incriminating IP addresses in hand, the FBI sent administrative subpoenas to the relevant Internet service provider to learn the identity of the person whose name was on the account--and then obtained search warrants for dawn raids. The search warrants authorized FBI agents to seize and remove any "computer-related" equipment, utility bills, telephone bills, any "addressed correspondence" sent through the U.S. mail, video gear, camera equipment, checkbooks, bank statements, and credit card statements. While it might seem that merely clicking on a link wouldn't be enough to justify a search warrant, courts have ruled otherwise. On March 6, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Nevada agreed with a magistrate judge that the hyperlink-sting operation constituted sufficient probable cause to justify giving the FBI its search warrant."
But I was afraid to click the link!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Spoofing as a link to a slashdot article would be about the least successful campaign of this type the FBI could conduct. Of all the billions and trillions of links out there, the link to an article on slashdot is going to get the fewest.
I got a catholic block.
I'm feeling lucky with google can be kinda scary to use now
Doctors do Massage in Longview WA now, who knew?
It's gonn be the next goatse, if you thought making people look at a stretched out asshole was funny, think how much funnier getting thier houses raided by the FBI will be!
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
I was under the impression that the US was a free country without secret police, who even go to the lengths of manufacturing temptations to catch "criminals." Big Brother will be upon us soon enough...
Yes, it is illegal. There are laws against false advertising. Unless you're now going to give me beer.
Blazing Spiders
I fail to see the difference; Do they not both involve stretching out of assholes?
- These characters were randomly selected.
Instead, walk round with a folder saying "NOT CHILD PORN", and arrest all the people who don't try to take the file. Wow! The power of logic!
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
from bash.org:
its me Where can i mk trilogy doiwnload???
http://www.firstgov.gov/fgsearch/index.jsp?dom0=www.fbi.gov&mw0=warez+sodomy+porn+microsoft+illegal+MORTAL+KOMBAT+TRILOGY+DOWNLOAD+FREE&rn=218&in0=domain&parsed=true&Submit=Go&domain=fbi.gov
Just go here.
garret its true or false
It's true.
I'm getting it at 400KB/s!
garret its not true
You clicked the link?
yes garret and.....
You do realize you just searched fbi.gov for warez, porn, sodomy, illegal, microsoft, and mortal kombat right?
fuck ya all
* Quits: Guest17888 (MKIRCN-003@212.182.122.Kg9=) (QUIT: User exited)
also, from the classic bloodninja
eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the f*ck, I told you not to message me again.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
BritneySpears14: I swear if you do it one more time I'm gonna report your ISP and say you were sending me kiddie porn you f*ck up.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
eminemBNJA: damn I gotta write down your names or something
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Indeed. We're all ignoring the real issue here - does generating a search warrant in response to clicking a link violate the Amazon One Click Order patent..?
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
1. Identify one of these fake links (sounds hard, but there's a few potential posted already in this article)
2. Craft an e-mail to legislators that think this sort of surveillance is a good idea. Create the e-mail as a genuine message you would send to such a person, such as discussing their position on a particular bill.
3. Include links in your e-mail. Some to valid sites discussing the effects of the bill. Others are malicious XSS attacks that will direct $legislator to these fake links.
4. Use coffee shop/library wifi (since they don't keep logs usually), a spoofed MAC address, and a mail relay across the pond to send the message.
5. Lather, rinse, repeat until enough high ranking officials have been busted and see this as a bad idea.
I know, I'm dreaming, but imaging the possibilities.....
Vosburgh told authorities that the computer had been destroyed earlier to get rid of a virus.
I'd heard Norton could destroy computers... but Literally? Wow.