Read the letter the FBI sent MLK to try to convince him to kill himself
“There is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days,” the letter says, apparently urging King to commit suicide. Fortunately, King didn’t back down. But the letter is a terrifying reminder of what government surveillance agencies can be capable of.
The FBI Wants To Crack Another Dead Terrorist’s Locked iPhone:
WHEN THE FBI asked a court to force Apple to help crack the encrypted iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook in February, Bureau director James Comey assured the public that his agency’s intrusive demand was about one terrorist’s phone, not repeated access to iPhone owners’ secrets. But now eight months have passed, and the FBI has in its hands another locked iPhone that once belonged to another dead terrorist. Which means they may have laid the groundwork for another legal showdown with Apple.
Source: Wired
The Feds Will Soon Be Able to Legally Hack Almost Anyone:
Digital devices and software programs are complicated. Behind the pointing and clicking on screen are thousands of processes and routines that make everything work. So when malicious software—malware—invades a system, even seemingly small changes to the system can have unpredictable impacts.
That’s why it’s so concerning that the Justice Department is planning a vast expansion of government hacking. Under a new set of rules, the FBI would have the authority to secretly use malware to hack into thousands or hundreds of thousands of computers that belong to innocent third parties and even crime victims. The unintended consequences could be staggering.
Source: Wired
The Feds Will Soon Be Able to Legally Hack Almost Anyone:
Digital devices and software programs are complicated. Behind the pointing and clicking on screen are thousands of processes and routines that make everything work. So when malicious software—malware—invades a system, even seemingly small changes to the system can have unpredictable impacts.
That’s why it’s so concerning that the Justice Department is planning a vast expansion of government hacking. Under a new set of rules, the FBI would have the authority to secretly use malware to hack into thousands or hundreds of thousands of computers that belong to innocent third parties and even crime victims. The unintended consequences could be staggering.
Source: Wired
In 2007, the FBI impersonated an Associated Press editor to communicate with a suspected source of a high school bomb threat, tricking him into opening an email attachment that planted malware on his computer and revealed the 15-year-old’s location. When the incident was disclosed by the Seattle Times seven years later, the AP and several newspapers protested the tactic, which could inhibit the press’ ability to do its work without suspicion. Now the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General has released the results of its investigation into the incident and essentially declared the move kosher.
Source: Wired
FBI Dumps 18 Hours of Spy Plane Footage From Black Lives Matter Protests:
It’s been just over a year since amateur aviation sleuths first revealed the FBI’s secret aerial surveillance of the civil unrest in Baltimore, Maryland.
Now, in response to a FOIA request from the ACLU, the Bureau has released more than 18 hours of aerial footage from the Baltimore protests captured by their once-secret spy planes, which regularly fly in circles above major cities and are commonly registered to fake companies.
The cache is likely the most comprehensive collection of aerial surveillance footage ever released by a US law enforcement agency. The videos, which the FBI claims are its “complete” recordings of the Baltimore unrest, cover the period of April 29 through May 3, 2015, when protests and riots erupted following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody under suspicious circumstances.
Source: Vice Magazine
Big Privacy Ruling Says Feds Can’t Grab Data Abroad With a Warrant:
An appeals court just sent the American Justice Department a clear message about its ability to reach beyond US borders to collect data with a search warrant: Keep your hands to yourself.
Source: Wired
FBI’s Secret Surveillance Tech Budget Is ‘Hundreds of Millions’:
In December 2015, The Washington Post reported the budget of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division at between $600 and $800 million, but officials refused to confirm the exact amount.
Source: theintercept.com
If the FBI Is So Worried About Car Hacking, Why Is It Fighting Encryption?
Of course, strong encryption of the type the FBI has been working against in its quest to stop criminal investigations from “going dark” is precisely what is needed to prevent this type of attack.
Source: Vice Magazine