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Rule 41 — FBI Gets Expanded Power to Hack any Computer in the World

Rule 41 — FBI Gets Expanded Power to Hack any Computer in the World

Dec 01, 2016
Hacking multiple computers across the world just got easier for the United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies from today onwards. The changes introduced to the Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by the United States Department of Justice came into effect on Thursday, after an effort to block the changes failed on Wednesday. The change grants the FBI much greater powers to hack into multiple computers within the country, and perhaps anywhere in the world, with just a single warrant authorized by any US judge (even magistrate judges). Usually, magistrate judges only issue warrants for cases within their jurisdiction. That's the same the FBI did in its 2015 investigation into child pornography site Playpen, in which the agency hacked into some 8,700 computers across 120 different countries. The Supreme Court approved the changes to Rule 41 in April, allowing any U.S. judge to issue search warrants that give the FBI and law enforcement agenc
FBI Hacked into 8,000 Computers in 120 Countries Using A Single Warrant

FBI Hacked into 8,000 Computers in 120 Countries Using A Single Warrant

Nov 24, 2016
The FBI hacked into more than 8,000 computers in 120 different countries with just a single warrant during an investigation into a dark web child pornography website, according to a newly published court filings. This FBI's mass hacking campaign is related to the high-profile child pornography Playpen case and represents the largest law enforcement hacking campaign known to date. The warrant was initially issued in February 2015 when the FBI seized the Playpen site and set up a sting operation on the dark web site, in which the agency deployed malware to obtain IP addresses from alleged site's visitors. The piece of malware used by the FBI is known as a Network Investigative Technique (NIT). The malware was used for at least 13 days to break into the computer of users who visited certain threads on Playpen and then sent their IP addresses back to the bureau. Earlier this year, court documents related to the Playpen case revealed that the FBI hacked over 1,000 alleg
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Police Arrest 16-year-old Boy Who Hacked CIA Director

Police Arrest 16-year-old Boy Who Hacked CIA Director

Feb 12, 2016
The teenage hacker, who calls himself a member of hacktivist group " Cracka with Attitude ," behind the series of hacks on the United States government and its high-level officials, including CIA director, might have finally got arrested. In a joint effort, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and British police reportedly have arrested a 16-year-old British teenager who they believe had allegedly: Leaked the personal details of tens of thousands of FBI agents and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees. Hacked into the AOL emails of CIA director John Brennan . Hacked into the personal email and phone accounts of the US spy chief James Clapper . Broke into the AOL emails of the FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano . Federal officials haven't yet released the identity of the arrested teenager, but the boy is suspected of being the lead hacker of Cracka With Attitude, who calls himself Cracka, the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SER
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Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Hacker Leaks Info of 30,000 FBI and DHS Employees

Hacker Leaks Info of 30,000 FBI and DHS Employees

Feb 09, 2016
An unknown hacker who promised to release the personal information on government employees has dump online a list of nearly 20,000 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and 9,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers. Though the authenticity of the information has not been verified, at least, some of the leaked data appears to be legitimate. Here's What the Hacker Leaked: The hacker leaked first round of data belonging to roughly 9,000 DHS employees on Sunday, which was followed by the release of 20,000 FBI agents information on Monday. The hacker, who goes on Twitter by the username of @DotGovs , published the supposed data on an encrypted text-sharing website, including: Names Job titles Phone numbers Email addresses The Reason Behind the Hack The message at the top of the data dump includes the hashtag " #FreePalestine " and reads "Long Live Palestine, Long Live Gaza: This is for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank,
FBI themed Mac OS X Ransomware Malware demands $300 Fine

FBI themed Mac OS X Ransomware Malware demands $300 Fine

Jul 16, 2013
Ransomware is a type of malware that attempts to extort money from a computer user by infecting and taking control of the victim's machine, or the files or documents stored on it. This kind of malware has typically been the domain of Windows users, but has made its way to OS X. A new piece of FBI themed Ransomware Malware is targeting Mac OS X and hijacking the user's browser with a notice demanding payment of $300 in order to release control of the application and accusing them of illegally accessing pornography. The address bar shows a URL clearly trying to fool users - fbi.gov.id657546456-3999456674.k8381.com  and the warnings appearing to be from the FBI tell the victim: " you have been viewing or distributing prohibited Pornographic content.. To unlock your computer and to avoid other legal consequences, you are obligated to pay a release fee of $300. " According to Malwarebytes , ransomware page is being pushed onto unsuspecting users browsing re
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