Slashdot Mirror
Google Has Notified At Least Dozens of People Targeted by Secret FBI Investigation (vice.com)
At least dozens of people have received an email from Google informing them that the internet giant responded to a request from the FBI demanding the release of user data, news outlet Motherboard reported Tuesday, citing several people who claimed to have received the email. The email did not specify whether Google released the requested data to the FBI. From the report: The unusual notice appears to be related to the case of Colton Grubbs, one of the creators of LuminosityLink, a $40 remote access tool (or RAT), that was marketed to hack and control computers remotely. Grubs pleaded guilty last year to creating and distributing the hacking tool to hundreds of people. Several people on Reddit, Twitter, and on HackForums, a popular forum where criminals and cybersecurity enthusiast discuss and sometimes share hacking tools, reported receiving the email. [...] The email included a legal process number. When Motherboard searched for it within PACER, the US government's database for court cases documents, it showed that it was part of a case that's still under seal.
I applaud Google for this.
Subpoenas are supposed to be served. Getting around this by serving the holder rather than the owner is an abuse.
Hey, if they can't be bothered to have a FISA hearing in order to spy on a Presidential campaign, what chance do us peons have against them?
Seriously - ask yourself that.
If the FBI can spy on Trump's campaign without following the proper FISA procedures to spy on Carter Page, we are not a free people.
When will you Trump haters realize that's a lot bigger than bringing Trump down?
Maybe you'll hate the out-of-control secret police when they turn on you?
The Nazis were defeated in world war 2. The backwoods hicks you antifa folks call nazis aren't the threat. You are.
Or software that could technically be used for good / neutral purposes?
That's what seems especially strange here.
From the original case, the author was originally targeted for "producing hacking tools", but that later got dropped because he only advertised it to be used for lawful purposes on your own hardware.
The FBI then came back showing he used it himself for unlawful purposes and with charges to match.
At the time that seemed fair enough, but now going after other buyers and users of the tool, one has to wonder how trumped up that claim might have been...