FBI Has Tor Mail's Entire Email Database

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FBI Has Tor Mail's Entire Email Database

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 27, 2014 @06:18AM from the lets-see-what-you-wrote dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Tor Mail was an anonymized email service run over Tor. It was operated by a company called Freedom Hosting, which was shut down by the FBI last August. The owner was arrested for 'enabling child porn,' and the Tor Mail servers suddenly began hosting FBI malware that attempted to de-anonymize users. Now, Wired reports on a new court filing which indicates that the FBI was also able to grab Tor Mail's entire email database. 'The filings show the FBI built its case in part by executing a search warrant on a Gmail account used by the counterfeiters, where they found that orders for forged cards were being sent to a TorMail e-mail account: "platplus@tormail.net." Acting on that lead in September, the FBI obtained a search warrant for the TorMail account, and then accessed it from the bureau's own copy of "data and information from the TorMail e-mail server, including the content of TorMail e-mail accounts," according to the complaint (PDF) sworn out by U.S. Postal Inspector Eric Malecki.'"

11 of 195 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Wait, WTF? by Penguinisto · 2014-01-27 06:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

Anyone with an Internet connection is capable of 'enabling child porn'.
Fuck sakes - is CP now the backdoor to the whole US Constitution (not to mention the means by which anyone, anywhere, can be arrested for any reason?)
Someone needs to seriously put a curb on this.

--
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
1. Re:Wait, WTF? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-27 06:33 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Mentioning "child porn" and "backdoor" is probably a poor choice of words when you're logged in and traceable.
2. Re:Wait, WTF? by houstonbofh · 2014-01-27 06:36 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Is CP now the backdoor to the whole US Constitution (not to mention the means by which anyone, anywhere, can be arrested for any reason?)
  Now? Where have you been for the past 20 years?
3. Re:Wait, WTF? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-27 06:38 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  And don't forget that the range "child porn" materials already includes cartoon drawings, adults who look too young, and images of fully-clothed children. Soon the definition of "child porn" will also be expanded to include pictures of cats and any women who are not wearing full headscarves.
4. Re:Wait, WTF? by ackthpt · 2014-01-27 07:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Spiro Agnew must be cackling in his grave.
  Same for John Edgar Hoover.
  If you're not on their list, it only means they haven't got around to you yet.
  everyone is guilty of something, sooner or later
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
5. Re:Wait, WTF? by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-01-27 07:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So, here's the rub:
  When evaluating a hosting company of some flavor, you also have to know if they are hosting anything that could be interpreted as permitting its services to be used for child porn, terrorism, drug talk, insider trading, prostitution, seditious speech, pornography, hate speech, sins against the Father, sins against the President, or campaign finance.
  If so, don't depend on that service for any privacy.
  Basically, if there's a US nexus, you cannot hire a hosting company and expect any privacy.
  The terrorists hate us for our freedoms. Go shopping.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Promises of anonymity are greatly exagerated by ClayDowling · 2014-01-27 06:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

When you trust a third party, with whom you have no actual connection, to keep your data private, you are pretty much asking to have it compromised. The best encryption and anonymity schemes in the world are useless in the face of a court order or questionable system administration. Did you really think some anonymous person was willing to go to jail for your privacy? You're both silly and naive if you think so.

--
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
1. Re:Promises of anonymity are greatly exagerated by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-27 07:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Lavabit was willing to take the sword and went out of business.
BADTHINK MINDCRIME DETECTED! by Thud457 · 2014-01-27 06:41 · Score: 5, Funny

please, STOP thinking about the children!

--
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Re:Daft by bob_super · 2014-01-27 07:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Phone lines, but only if you speak in Navajo.
Presumed Complicit. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-27 07:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

See, that's the thing. They weren't providing hosting services SPECIFICALLY to child pornographers. They were providing services to ANYONE. Anyone at all. No questions asked.
Some of those people happened to be child pornographers. The vast majority of them were not.
You're arguing it's reasonable to presume that any user of a service that is ALSO used by criminals should reasonably be treated as suspect? Oh, child. You don't think there's child pornographers on GMail? Using EC2? With Instagram accounts? What service that's open to all ISN'T "a crime ridden neighborhood" in your example?