Federal Bureau of Investigation
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Trump team wants to meet with Silicon Valley execs next week
The Trump transition team has invited a number of tech industry leaders to New York next week for a roundtable discussion. USA Today reports that Reince Priebus, Trump's chief of staff, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and advisor Peter Thiel are engineering the December 14th summit.
Interpol is using AI to hunt down child predators online
The FBI may have scored a big win with operation Playpen, which helped dismantle a ring of TOR-based pedophiles and prosecute its members (thanks, Rule 41), but that was just one battle in the ongoing war against the sexual exploitation of children. That fight is now a bit easier for European law enforcement, which as debuted a new machine learning AI system that hunts for child porn on P2P networks.
After Math: Politics as usual
It's been a crazy week for US politics, what with the end of the contentious 2016 election just around the corner. The New York Times announced that it would lower its paywall for the 72 hours surrounding election day while human dumpster fire Peter Thiel tried to explain away his support for Donald Trump. Security experts are also investigating why one of Trump's servers keeps pinging a Russian bank as the FBI investigates one of its own Twitter accounts for violations of the Hatch Act. And no, you still can't vote by phone, dummy. Numbers, because how else are you going to rig an election?
FBI investigating potential hack of Democrat officials' cells
Reuters reports that the FBI is actively investigating whether several high ranking Democrat officials' cellphones have been hacked. The Bureau believes that this attack, should it be confirmed, could be tied to the earlier DNC hacks and that of former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Details remain sketchy at this point -- there's no word on how many phones may have been compromised or their owners' positions within government. The FBI, the Clinton campaign and the DNC have yet to publicly comment. We'll update as more developments come to light.
Judge orders the release of additional Clinton emails
The FBI recently discovered an additional 15,000 emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State. Though a vast majority of those communications appear to be innocuous, a federal judge has ordered their release beginning on September 13th.
Ex-con posts gun photo to Facebook, gets another 15 years
There is so such a thing as oversharing -- just ask Malik First Born Allah Farrad (formerly Marvin Buckles). He was convicted of federal gun and drug charges in 2000. In 2013, the FBI began investigating him over suspicions of "illicit conduct" and subsequently began looking through his social media accounts. That's when the feds found a picture of three handguns arrayed upon his apartment's toilet, and discovered the selfie above. Farrad had unfortunately forgotten that felons are not allowed to possess firearms of any kind.
Report: FBI forming new cyber intelligence research unit, focus on digital surveillance
According to a report filed by technology site CNET, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is forming a new cyber intelligence and research unit dubbed the Domestic Communications Assistance Center (DCAC). The briefing states that the DCAC's purpose will be "to invent technology that will let police more readily eavesdrop on Internet and wireless communications" (initially focusing on VoIP services, social networks, and wireless communication mediums) . Via a prepared statement, the FBI explained that the unit's modus operandi will be to "assist federal, state and local law enforcement with electronic surveillance capabilities." Congress has appropriated over $54 million for "lawful electronic surveillance" in fiscal year 2012; the DCAC has been earmarked just north of $8 million from that pie. The Bureau's full statement is after the break.
FBI reportedly pressing for backdoor access to Facebook, Google
Investigators at the FBI supposedly aren't happy that social networks like Facebook or Google+ don't have the same kind of facility for wiretaps that phones have had for decades. If claimed industry contacts for CNET are right, senior staff at the bureau have floated a proposed amendment to the 1994-era Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) that would require that communication-based websites with large user bases include a backdoor for federal agents to snoop on suspects. It would still include the same requirement for a court order as for phone calls, even if US carriers currently enjoy immunity for cooperating with any warrantless wiretapping. As might be expected, technology firms and civil liberties advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation object to deepening CALEA's reach any further, and Apple is thought to be preemptively lobbying against another definition of the law that might require a government back channel for audiovisual chat services like FaceTime or Skype. The FBI didn't explicitly confirm the proposal when asked, but it did say it was worried it might be "going dark" and couldn't enforce wiretaps. [Image credit: David Drexler, Flickr]
FBI's Child ID app helps iPhone users find their missing children
The FBI has just released its very first mobile app, aimed at helping parents deal with their worst nightmare -- a missing child. Known as Child ID, the application allows users to store their kid's photos and identifying information directly on their handsets, making it easier to provide authorities with vital data whenever the little one disappears. Parents can also use the tool to dial 911 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children with the tap of a button, and can instantly e-mail their child's details to law enforcement officials, thanks to a dedicated tab. Of course, some may feel uncomfortable with keeping such personal information stored on a smartphone, but the Bureau insists that none of the data will be collected or shared without authorization -- and they're pretty good at keeping secrets. For now, Child ID is available only for iPhone, though the FBI plans to expand it to other mobile devices in the near future. Interested iOS users can download it for themselves, at the iTunes link below.
Fox Mulder gets all up in your Second Life
Realizing the vast amounts of time honest to goodness citizens spend on social media sites and in virtual worlds, the FBI has decided to jump aboard the Web 2.0 train to aid in their never-ending search for terrorists, fugitives, missing children, and new potential recruits.The Federal Bureau of Investigation now has a presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, iPhone, and Second Life. They even have widgets you can embed almost anywhere to show your support. If staring at billboards plastered with America's most wanted and assorted recruitment ads is your idea of fun, you might check them out. This isn't just a lame PR attempt, though it may seem that way at first glance. The FBI is truly interested in reaching out to individuals who may be able to help them with their mission, "To protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners."
