Inquiry finds FBI sued Apple to unlock phone without considering all options

The Office of the Inspector General has issued its report on the circumstances surrounding the FBI’s 2016 lawsuit attempting to force Apple to unlock an iPhone as part of a criminal investigation. While it stops short of saying the FBI was untruthful in its justification of going to court, the report is unsparing of the bureaucracy and clashing political motives that ultimately undermined that justification.

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Turns out that Geek Squad has been in the FBI’s pocket for a decade

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Who needs probable cause when you have geeks? 

That appears to be the thinking of the FBI, which has been working with Best Buy’s computer repair service Geek Squad for at least a decade. And we’re not talking about geeks fixing Bureau computers. 

Instead, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the law enforcement agency has paid Geek Squad employees to act as informants and report potentially illegal content found on customers’ computers. What’s more, in at least one case it appeared that an employee may have proactively searched a computer for suspicious content — as opposed to just reporting what he or she inadvertently stumbled across. Read more…

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James Comey tweets response to Nunes memo filled with fire and fury

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Lordy.

James Comey never really went away after he was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, hanging around like a ghost who feels obligated to chime in every once in a while. 

The former FBI director weighed in on Friday when the House Intelligence Committee released the memo put together by committee chairman Devin Nunes — a memo that was supposed to blow the cover off of some serious deep state conspiracies about the FBI but, rather, landed with a thud and may have undermined criticism of Robert Mueller’s probe into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.   Read more…

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The surprising poignancy of the ‘FBI agent’ meme

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By now, we know that hacking into a webcam is fairly easy, and that covering up your webcam is generally a good idea. But lately, the internet seems to have made a bizarre, poignant peace with the idea that someone might be watching us — not rogue hackers, necessarily, but the FBI itself.

Jokes about the “FBI agent watching our computers” have becomes ubiquitous on Twitter in recent weeks, to the point where that phrase has been replaced, largely, with “my FBI agent.” The tweets are often mini-stories: the narrator does something meant to be seen by no one, only to remember there is someone watching on the other side. Read more…

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U.S. government issues alerts about malware and IP addresses linked to North Korean cyber attacks

 US-CERT, the Department of Homeland Security team responsible for analyzing cybersecurity threats, has posted a warning about cyber attacks by the North Korean government, which it collectively refers to as “Hidden Cobra.” The technical alert from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security says a remote administration tool (RAT) called FALLCHILL has been deployed by Hidden Cobra… Read More

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Russia sent payments quite literally labelled ‘to finance election campaign of 2016’

Bad news, America: The terrifying 2016 election meddling plot continues to thicken in such a way that’s sure to make you bang your head against your desk and scream “HOW?”
In the saga’s latest installment, a Buzzfeed News report alleges that over 60 …

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James Comey changes his Twitter handle to @Comey

 A quick update on the James Comey Twitter situation: The former FBI Director yesterday switched his Twitter handle over to his name. He now owns the @Comey Twitter handle, which is verified. Comey confirmed the new handle, saying he’s glad to be a part of the Twitterverse: Here’s my new handle. Glad to be part of the Twitterverse. Grateful to Reinhold for the cover these last… Read More

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