“Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information on suspects, bringing the criminal wiretap into the cyber age,” Jennifer Valentino-Devries and Danny Yadron report for The Wall Street Journal. “Federal agencies have largely kept quiet about these capabilities, but court documents and interviews with people involved in the programs provide new details about the hacking tools, including spyware delivered to computers and phones through email or Web links—techniques more commonly associated with attacks by criminals.”
“People familiar with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s programs say that the use of hacking tools under court orders has grown as agents seek to keep up with suspects who use new communications technology, including some types of online chat and encryption tools,” Valentino-Devries and Yadron report. “The use of such communications, which can’t be wiretapped like a phone, is called ‘going dark’ among law enforcement.”
Valentino-Devries and Yadron report, “The FBI develops some hacking tools internally and purchases others from the private sector. With such technology, the bureau can remotely activate the microphones in phones running Google Inc.’s Android software to record conversations, one former U.S. official said. It can do the same to microphones in laptops without the user knowing, the person said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Which OS(es) are these laptops running?
“Surveillance technologies are coming under increased scrutiny after disclosures about data collection by the National Security Agency,” Valentino-Devries and Yadron report. “The NSA gathers bulk data on millions of Americans, but former U.S. officials say law-enforcement hacking is targeted at very specific cases and used sparingly.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Applepostle” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
NSA can read email, online chats, track Web browsing without warrant, documents leaked by Edward Snowden show – July 31, 2013
Momentum builds against U.S. government surveillance – July 29, 2013
U.S. House rejects effort to curb NSA surveillance powers, 205-217 – July 24, 2013
Obama administration scrambles to shut down imminent U.S. House vote to defund NSA spying – July 24, 2013
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
Apple, Google, dozens of others push Obama administration to disclose U.S. surveillance requests – July 19, 2013
Secret court agrees to allow Yahoo to reveal its fight against U.S. government PRISM requests – July 16, 2013
How Microsoft handed U.S. NSA, FBI, CIA access to users’ encrypted video, audio, and text communications – July 11, 2013
DuckDuckGo search engine surges 33% in wake of PRISM scandal – June 20, 2013
Yahoo: Since December 2012, we have received up to 13,000 U.S. gov’t requests for customer data – June 18, 2013
Apple: Since December 2012, we have received U.S. gov’t requests for customer data for up to 10,000 accounts – June 17, 2013
Nine companies, including Apple, tied to PRISM, Obama to be smacked with class-action lawsuit – June 12, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
U.S. lawmakers urge review of ‘Prism’ domestic spying, Patriot Act – June 10, 2013
PRISM: Do Apple, Google, Facebook have an ethical obligation not to spy on users? – June 8, 2013
Plausible deniability: The strange and unbelievable similarities in the Apple, Google, and Facebook PRISM denials – June 7, 2013
Google’s Larry Page on government eavesdropping: ‘We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday’ – June 7, 2013
Seecrypt app lets iPhone, Android users keep voice calls, text messages away from carriers, government eyes and ears – June 7, 2013
Obama administration defends PRISM data-collection as legal anti-terrorism tool – June 7, 2013
Facebook, Google, Yahoo join Apple in sort-of denying PRISM involvement – June 7, 2013
Report: Intelligence program gives U.S. government direct access to customer data on Apple servers; Apple denies – June 6, 2013
Enjoy your fake iPhone, Andy!
(Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.)
Never assume you’re safe. No matter what phone or device you are using.
Brought to you by Imo’s Pizza and world famous Ted Drewes frozen custard.
I’m getting hungry.
Why should anyone doing something illegal ever feel safe?
I quit eating at Carl’s Jr. It makes me fat.
People who helped slaves escape the south were breaking the law as were people who hid Jews from the nazis, as are people who worshipped in certain countries in the ‘wrong faith’.
Laws are made by men and it is foolish to assume they are necessarily just or fair.
Right. So you are saying that we should break any laws we don’t agree with or that we find inconvenient?
As I understand it, laws are made by people when they generally agree that they want a certain behaviour in society. If the law is flawed, it will become evident in a very short while if we all follow it and society will learn from it and change it. People who want to harm others are of no benefit to society and need to be stopped. If we create laws to protect us from these malcontents, we need to enforce the laws and see justice done. If these same organizations who were charged to help us misuse these laws, they too have to be brought to justice.
laws are only ever changed by civil disobedience.
Anti smoking laws?
And Android is approved for use by our military? Really? If the FBI can listen in, then anybody or country with hackers can too.
Exactly.
What the f*&^ is going on in this country?
I wonder if Apple is getting dog-piled on by the government because they’re not playing ball with all the ways the FBI/CIA/NSA wants to spy on us?
“… not playing ball” — yes, I would say that connects the dots nicely.
Perhaps the plan emerges.”You, Google and Microsoft, provide we with the tools we need to spy on the mindless masses and we, the government, will destroy the dominant player. And it won’t even look like you’re involved, we’ll make Amazon hold the bag.”
Geez, I look bad in tinfoil, but it seems to be the coming thing.
No, the government is going after those who don’t roll over and kiss its arse: Thus Apple is the first company targeted.
sadly you are again misinformed.
apple is dying because they are shit, not because of any (incorrectly) perceived lack of cooperation with some random government.
LOL!
If Apple is dying, I want to be dying, too.
Kids, Zeno is a perfect example of what it looks like from inside the Android and Linux fanboy reality distortion field.
It looks like it must be painful to be in there. That much stupid should never be allowed to collect into a single human being.
Ha! Zeno, the fat kid wearing the Star Wars tee, living in his mom’s basement, desperately trying to hack stuff, thinking that poking around on crappy Android phones, chowing on Red Bull, pizza and cheese-string and sneering about Apple stuff on Apple-centric fora will make him look cool to all the script-kiddies hanging out in the cyber cafe.
Here’s a news-flash, chubby: look in the mirror; see those letters on your forehead? They spell L O S E R.
Hey MDN, iCal this prediction.
At some point in the future the truth will be revealed, Probably by a whistleblower, a WikiLeaks event, or freedom of information act, about this point in history. Apple was the victim of a campaign by our government to break Apple’s resistance against helping the government spy on it’s citezens. I can see no other reason for all the injustice Apple is experiencing at every turn.
Another ringing wiretapping endorsement for Android phones! I can hear the downtrodden Fandroid now: WHACK!! “Thank you sir, may I have another?” WHACK!!…
Been warning people about this all the time and they think I am nuts. The Moto X is the ultimate spy device courtesy of Google. What about Google Glasses they will see what you see. Who needs a spy network when you got thousand of idiots walking around doing all the dirty work.
Your warnings would come across a lot better if you would give them without the tinfoil hat and all the other paranoia you spread.
And by implication this means that the NSA can listen on Android phones globally, no warrant required, naturally, for those lesser beings known collectively as “foreigners”. Enjoy your galaxies, guys and gals.
Did Apple p*ss off the feds by refusing to insert eavesdropping software?
Time will tell and the answer will come in the form of how the government treats Apple as time goes on.
If the government keeps making moves to destroy Apple then we have our answer.
Makes you wonder about all the strange court rulings that seem to favor Samsung and industry thieves over Apple.
Actually it’s not unique to any particular kind or brand of phone.
But since this is a religious web site we can’t let common sense get in the way now can we?
Common sense has long left your abode.
And by the way, in case my sarcasm got overlooked I’m one of them “foreigners”, at least spiritually.
The “agent provocateur” has gone hi-tech.
Because of this I am reading 1984 for the first time. Big Brother.
When I first read it in 1978, it seemed like dystopian science fiction.
I have a feeling that as you read it today, it will come across as nonfiction.
Which laptops run an Android OS?
I’ve seen a few cheap netbooks out of china that run it.
Basically they are 7 inch netbooks with the phone version of Android slapped on them. You see them at places like Riteaid under the Coby brand.
They mean Windows OS in this article.
Of course FBI can “easily” do so. They are friends of Eric the Mold. Not a big deal.
Now. Make sure all departments fix the Marvicks. They are bad. Better yet, kill the mastermind behind them — it’s just a kind of fruits. Uproot the tree. Case close.
Android – We’re “open” to hackers and snoopers.
The NSA gathers bulk data on millions of Americans, but former U.S. officials say law-enforcement hacking is targeted at very specific cases and used sparingly
Setting the blahblahblah aside, I just want to know if targeted hacking is being used LEGALLY!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_US_Constitution
Obama Messiah! Save us!
Give me your soul and your ACA insurance and your taxes and your VOTE and I will save you.
This is possible since years on every phone with formated AT commands through class 0 SMSs.
No need for any installed tool.
You can enable/disable every component of your phone without this being visible for the enduser. You can even drain the battery in a very short time.
It’s not a coincidence that mobile phones are forbidden in some secured areas… It’s NOT (well not only) for the embedded cam.
So who’s the bad guy here? America and their dear FBI?
and again I ask, how will Android fans defend this?