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FBI Says They're Now Working 24/7 To Investigate Hackers and Network Attacks
An anonymous reader writes "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is finally stepping up its game when it comes to hackers. Maybe it was Anonymous that did it or maybe it was statements from the US Secretary of Defense two weeks ago, but either way, the FBI is now hunting hackers 24/7." I'm happy that the FBI no longer has an investigation schedule when it comes to online crime, but I have to think that I'm not the only one who assumed they were doing this before.
can we get a 24/7 task-force after rachel from card services?
Better yet, seal team six.
I've been noticing a downshift lately of spambot activity on my websites. Maybe this is why?
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Since this is /., I am not quite sure how to react - perhaps someone will enlighten me?
Do we *like* the idea that a federal agency is taking online crime seriously and increasing its investigative efforts? Or do we decry even larger invasion of privacy by the lead-fisted government into private citizens lives? Assuming, of course, that any investigation of online crimes would have to at a very least get access to various online resources, logs and data, most likely not voluntarily shared by many parties who go to great lengths to be difficult to identify. You know what *that* means.
Unless the FBI's rate of doing good vs. harm in cybersecurity significantly improves, I think I would've preferred the old schedule. Not sure we need a 24/7 task force dedicated to extraditing filesharers from other countries.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The FBI needs to launch drone strikes on hackers. After all they are pointing out security risks and we cannot allow that.
Federal Bureau of Proactive Investigation.
Whether this is a good or bad thing is another question, considering their alliances with certain corrupt groups in the past.
I hope (vainly) that they are concentrating on real problems, like the DDoS attack on Callcentric. (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/CallCentric-Victim-of-Devastating-TwoWeek-DDoS-Attack-121667?r=0.832118027416197)
But their priorities are pobably set by the MAFIAA.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
The only mainstream hacking I ever hear about is usually "protest" hacking or "shock and awe" hacking against major organizations.
I really hope the FBI is focusing more on improving their own cyber warfare capability against countries such as China that may have insidious intentions for our vulnerabilities.
I mean, if Playstation Network gets hacked I guess its a sad day, but I really hope they're working above that level of hacking at this point.
Anonymous might put their Guy Fawkes masks on and you'd have a full-blown 8-person protest outside the Hoover building.
They have proven track record of not being able to stop Rachel at Card Holder Services; so there is no chance they could stop a more determined foe.
> Maybe it was Anonymous that did it or maybe it was statements from the US Secretary of Defense two weeks ago
Anonymous? They haven't done anything remotely newsworthy in a while. And even when they were getting headlines, it was the same stale, useless, ineffectual stuff they've always done. No one's losing any sleep over websites being DOSed for 15 minutes. And why would the FBI, a DoJ agency, care what the SoD has to say? Here's a better idea, maybe it's got something to do with the relatively recent and growing influx of Iranian cyberattacks?
I guess I should turn myself in. I changed the ascii characters in my copy of DOS "mission imp" back in 1981. I only did it so my game would look cool and different. Leniency please!
Well shit, they weren't before?? Who the fuck was running that place??
From personal experience I can say that even when the FBI has intel handed to them on a silver platter they simply don't care unless the compromised boxen are in the US. Having helped admin IRC networks for a very long time I can attest to the fact that someone at some point will foist a botnet onto your network. Don't bother calling the FBI if they are ADSL routers with poorly chosen defaults that happen to run Linux in a foreign country. Don't bother calling if the bot herders happen to appear to live in a foreign country either. If it's a standard botnet full of windows boxen good fucking luck because they won't give a shit either. Find them something that might make them famous though and call them, only after you've already secured the rights to the story.
Unless something ridiculous has changed, they've had agents dedicated to computer crime 24/7 for the last 20 years.
From personal experience.
The only thing in the article that's noteworthy is their shifting focus to rapid attribution. That's an incredibly difficult goal, especially given the laws regarding search and seizure. If anything raises a red flag for me, it's this. Historically law enforcement in general has always been behind due to the very nature of crime. With Internet related crime this issue is only amplified. I would love to know how they're getting around the red tape that has always slowed down investigations of this type.
Get it straight they are Cyber-Criminals.
Hackers are not necessarily Criminals.
Cyber-Criminals are not necessarily Hackers.
Although some may be both.
all the open door system at financial institutions to keep out the hackers instead of having those institutions fix the issue?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I expect they'll release spyware into the wild so that they can track it to the nefarious types that use it. They'll figure out where it went when someone dies. That's how this shit works, isn't it?
I don't have that much of a problem with what the FBI is doing - BUT, I wish there were more checks and balances than a rubber stamping judge when shown a some sort FISA warrrant - and no, as far as I'M concerned, unless _I_ see it, it's a rubber stamp: I don't trust Government - period,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, terrorism - blah dee blah da.
Fuck off - J. Edgar Hoover and his blackmail operations - FBI has the burden of proof that they aren't assholes. They are the SECRET POLICE of the US of A - FUCK YOU! THEY have to prove that they are doing what they are doing for America's good.
Don't like it?!? Too fucking bad! Go work for the Russians you assholes.
As a Libertarian, I consider YOU the Terrorists!!
I think the FBI should be spending it's time on internal government corruption.
Nobody Seems To Notice and Nobody Seems To Care - Government & Stealth Malware
In Response To Slashdot Article: Former Pentagon Analyst: China Has Backdoors To 80% of Telecoms 87
How many rootkits does the US[2] use officially or unofficially?
How much of the free but proprietary software in the US spies on you?
Which software would that be?
Visit any of the top freeware sites in the US, count the number of thousands or millions of downloads of free but proprietary software, much of it works, again on a proprietary Operating System, with files stored or in transit.
How many free but proprietary programs have you downloaded and scanned entire hard drives, flash drives, and other media? Do you realize you are giving these types of proprietary programs complete access to all of your computer's files on the basis of faith alone?
If you are an atheist, the comparison is that you believe in code you cannot see to detect and contain malware on the basis of faith! So you do believe in something invisible to you, don't you?
I'm now going to touch on a subject most anti-malware, commercial or free, developers will DELETE on most of their forums or mailing lists:
APT malware infecting and remaining in BIOS, on PCI and AGP devices, in firmware, your router (many routers are forced to place backdoors in their firmware for their government) your NIC, and many other devices.
Where are the commercial or free anti-malware organizations and individual's products which hash and compare in the cloud and scan for malware for these vectors? If you post on mailing lists or forums of most anti-malware organizations about this threat, one of the following actions will apply: your post will be deleted and/or moved to a hard to find or 'deleted/junk posts' forum section, someone or a team of individuals will mock you in various forms 'tin foil hat', 'conspiracy nut', and my favorite, 'where is the proof of these infections?' One only needs to search Google for these threats and they will open your malware world view to a much larger arena of malware on devices not scanned/supported by the scanners from these freeware sites. This point assumed you're using the proprietary Microsoft Windows OS. Now, let's move on to Linux.
The rootkit scanners for Linux are few and poor. If you're lucky, you'll know how to use chkrootkit (but you can use strings and other tools for analysis) and show the strings of binaries on your installation, but the results are dependent on your capability of deciphering the output and performing further analysis with various tools or in an environment such as Remnux Linux. None of these free scanners scan the earlier mentioned areas of your PC, either! Nor do they detect many of the hundreds of trojans and rootkits easily available on popular websites and the dark/deep web.
Compromised defenders of Linux will look down their nose at you (unless they are into reverse engineering malware/bad binaries, Google for this and Linux and begin a valuable education!) and respond with a similar tone, if they don't call you a noob or point to verifying/downloading packages in a signed repo/original/secure source or checking hashes, they will jump to conspiracy type labels, ignore you, lock and/or shuffle the thread, or otherwise lead you astray from learning how to examine bad binaries. The world of Linux is funny in this way, and I've been a part of it for many years. The majority of Linux users, like the Windows users, will go out of their way to lead you and say anything other than pointing you to information readily available on detailed binary file analysis.
Don't let them get
Hello, you've reached the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If this call is cybercrime-related, please call back during business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard time, Monday through Friday. If this call is related to a non-cybercrime investigation, please press "1" now for an agent. If this call is related to bizarre serial killers or UFO phenomena, please press "2" now for our X-files division. Or press "0" for an operator at any time.
No need to leave a callback number, we already know who you are.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
>> the FBI is now hunting hackers 24/7
Is that because we finally figured out what happened in Benghazi?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578008922056244096.html
How 'bout we figure out who let Sean Smith down first, eh?
24/7? what kind of sick subnet is that? o_O
All I can say now is, "BUY shares in powered donut stocks, BUY, BUY, BUY!"
that this will be almost as effective as the War On Drugs. At least for getting the FBI more funding and more power to ignore/violate/destroy civil liberties.
It's 1995 again...
Notice to screw-ups, midnight to 8 am shifts have now opened up in hacker hunting squad. Get your act together or you will be assigned.
...eclipsemediaonline fucks.
I would love to see the bastards behind eclipsemediaonline with their guts strewn out on the streets like the garbage they are. Spammers and adware writers need to be subjected to torture and medical experimentation as well as organ harvesting. We should also make it a habit to assassinate, but preferable capture and torture, people in foreign nations who are engaged in this crap as well. It's folly to think that all human life has value. If it's okay to bomb foreign nations into rubble then it's just as well to destroy these "people".
How 'bout we figure out who let Sean Smith down first, eh?
He's too white. Now if it were Saint Trayboon Martin then the FBI would be all over it.
Donut Bureau?
The problem with every law enforcement agency, FBI included, is that they have an extremely geek-hostile culture. Could you imagine any red-blooded hacker doing work for and at the FBI, while at the same time being forced to wear those ugly black suits, tie, etc., and bow to the will of seriously brain dead lawyers higher up in the hierarchy? Sure, with some serious pay, the FBI could attract some average security professionals, but the real hackers, those with the required skills and mentality, would stay light years away of any bureaucratic organization, unless temporarily for the purpose of penetrating its internal structures for fun and profit.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Like the printing press, government is both a benefit and a hazard. Taking down mafia style botnets and guarding against attacks on our interconnected and networked physical infrastructure is a good thing. Using the Patriot Act to snoop on our communications looking for keywords or suspicious activities is a bad thing. How this evolves requires constant monitoring by an informed voting populace.
Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
I wish they'd ignore some of the script kiddies vandalizing web pages and focus some of their resources on the "Epidemic of Fraud"(2003 FBI report) in the mortgage and financial markets. Maybe they could initiate some RICO investigations of the big banks due to the banks' well reported practice of forging and improperly notarizing thousands of lost note affidavits.
..could easily give them a handle on the bot-net Mafia. NSA does have the "total net picture" and all they need to do is to do a bit of datamining to discover the mafia.
But hey, the CIA wants to gather intelligence by taking over botnets !
NSA data is being used to pressure those who voice their dissent with all the warmaking and the financial scams. Cybercrime is priority #69.
Its always the same story. Instead of fixing the holes in the system just put everyone that see's the holes in jail. Security in obscurity is illogical.