FBI Director - Online Cyber Security News

FBI Arrests Two Hackers Who Hacked US Spy Chief, FBI and CIA Director

Thursday, September 08, 2016 Mohit Kumar

US authorities have arrested two North Carolina men on charges that they were part of the notorious hacking group "Crackas With Attitude."

Crackas with Attitude is the group of hackers who allegedly was behind a series of audacious and embarrassing hacks that targeted personal email accounts of senior officials at the CIA, FBI, the White House, Homeland Security Department, and other US federal agencies.

Andrew Otto Boggs, 22, of North Wilkesboro, N.C., who allegedly used the handle "INCURSIO," and Justin Gray Liverman, 24, of Morehead City, who known online as "D3F4ULT," were arrested on Thursday morning on charges related to their alleged roles in the computer hacking, according to a press release by Department of Justice.

A 16-year-old British teenager suspected of being part of the group was arrested in February by the FBI and British police.

Although court documents did not name the victims, the hacking group had allegedly:

Hacked into the AOL email of CIA director John Brennan and released personal details.
Hacked into the personal emails and phone accounts of the US spy chief James Clapper.
Broke into the AOL email of the FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano.

Cracka also leaked the personal details of 31,000 government agents belonging to nearly 20,000 FBI agents; 9,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers and some number of DoJ staffers.

"In some instances, members of the conspiracy uploaded private information that they obtained from victims’ personal accounts to public websites; made harassing phone calls to victims and their families; and defaced victims’ social media accounts," reads the press release.

According to the FBI officials, between October 2015 to February 2016, the hacking group used social engineering in order to trick the victims into revealing their account number, password, and other details.

Boggs and Liverman will be extradited next week to the Eastern District of Virginia, where federal prosecutors have spent months building a case against Crackas With Attitude.

So, FBI Director also Puts Tape Over His Webcam

Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Mohit Kumar

What do you do to protect your 'Privacy' while using your computer?

FBI Director James Comey uses tape to cover up his laptop webcam to ensure Privacy.

Yes, you heard it right. During the Q&A session at Kenyon College last week, Comey said that he uses tape to cover his laptop webcam in order to mitigate the danger of secret surveillance.

While giving a speech about encryption and privacy, Comey repeated his argument that "absolute privacy" hampers the law enforcement and has never existed in America – until now, when by default encryption offered by big tech giants created boundaries where law enforcement can't enter, even with a court order.

This isn't the first time Comey made this kind of statement. Comey has always suggested tech companies to adopt encryption techniques that help federal agencies intercept end-to-end encrypted communications when necessary.

But after his speech, Comey said something that generated hilarity on social media:

"I saw something in the news, so I copied it. I put a piece of tape — I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop — I put a piece of tape over the camera. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera," reported NPR.

Comey’s worry about webcams is reasonable, especially when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) itself has used malware to hack into webcams to spy on targets.

On one hand Comey argues that the companies should not make devices that are unhackable to law enforcement, but on the contrary, he is doing exactly the same with his personal webcam.

So why is he having a double standard for his own privacy?

ACLU chief technologist Christopher Soghoian has a good example:

"FBI Director Comey has created a "warrant-proof webcam" that will thwart lawful surveillance should he ever be investigated. Shame on him," Soghoian tweeted.

However, keeping aside the hypocrisy of Comey, tapping your laptop's webcam is a good take away for you to adopt, as we know the ability of the FBI and NSA (National Security Agency) to spread malware and turn on webcam to spy on targets.

Edward Snowden Leaks revealed the NSA's Optic Nerve project that carried out to capture webcam images every five minutes from random Yahoo users. In just 6 months, 1.8 million users' images were captured and stored on the government servers in 2008.

Though putting a tape over the lens of your webcam would not stop hackers or government spying agencies from recording your voice, at least this would prevent them watching or capturing your live visual feeds.

The 7 Most Wanted Iranian Hackers By the FBI

Thursday, March 24, 2016 Wang Wei

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has lengthened its Most Wanted List by adding seven Iranian hackers who are accused of attacking a range of US banks and a New York dam.

On Thursday, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) charged seven Iranian hackers with a slew of computer hacking offences for breaking into computer systems of dozens of US banks, causing Millions of dollars in damages, and tried to shut down a New York dam.

The individual hackers, who allegedly worked for computer security companies linked to the Iranian government, were indicted for an "extensive campaign" of cyber attacks against the US financial sector.

All the seven hackers have been added to the FBI's Most Wanted list, and their names are:

Ahmad Fathi, 37
Hamid Firoozi, 34
Amin Shokohi, 25
Sadegh Ahmadzadegan (aka Nitr0jen26), 23
Omid Ghaffarinia (aka PLuS), 25
Sina Keissar, 25
Nader Saedi (aka Turk Server), 26

All the hackers have been charged with conducting numerous Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on major U.S. banks, with Firoozi separately gaining unauthorized access to a New York dam's industrial automation control (SCADA) system in August and September of 2013.

"This unauthorized access allowed [Firoozi] to repeatedly obtain information regarding the status and operation of the dam, including information about the water levels, temperature, and status of the sluice gate, which is responsible for controlling water levels and flow rates," a DoJ statement reads.

Luckily, the sluice gate had already been manually disconnected for the purpose of maintenance at the time Firoozi attacked.

The hackers' work allegedly involved Botnets – networks of compromised machines – that hit major American banks, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as the Nasdaq stock exchange with floods of traffics measuring up to 140Gbps and knocked them offline.

The Iranian hackers targeted more than 46 financial institutions and financial sector companies, costing them "tens of Millions of dollars in remediation costs" in preventing the attacks in various incidents spanning 2011 to 2013.

All the seven hackers will face up to 10 years in prison on computer hacking charges while Firoozi faces an additional 5-year prison sentence for breaking into a dam in Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York.

FBI Director — "What If Apple Engineers are Kidnapped and Forced to Write (Exploit) Code?"

Tuesday, March 01, 2016 Swati Khandelwal

What If Apple Engineers are Kidnapped and Forced to Write (Exploit) Code?

Exactly this was what FBI Director James Comey asked in the congressional hearing on Tuesday.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing on "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy" over the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI ended up being full of drama.

The key to the dispute is whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can force Apple to develop a special version of its mobile operating system that would help the agency unlock an iPhone belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

FBI Director James Comey was there with a prepared testimony about why the FBI wants Apple to create a backdoor into the killer's iPhone.

Comey: Encryption is a Long-Term Threat to Law Enforcement

Yesterday, a New York magistrate judge refused a similar order in a drug case in which the authorities asked Apple to help with the data stored in an unlocked iPhone.

The judge suggested that the government’s interpretation of the All Writs Act – the same 1789 law the FBI is invoking in the San Bernardino case to compel Apple to write a backdoor – would weaken the separation of powers as well as trample on the United States Constitution itself.

Comey, who portrayed Encryption as a long-term threat to the law enforcement because it lets criminals "go dark," said:

"Slippery slope arguments are always attractive, but I suppose you could say, 'Well, Apple's engineers have this in their head, what if they're kidnapped and forced to write software?' That's where the judge has to sort this out, between good lawyers on both sides making all reasonable arguments."

By making this comment, Comey wants to highlight that Apple is capable of creating a backdoor to unlock the iPhone's encryption, a fact Apple has admitted.

It seems that certain Apple engineers are guided on what to do if they're kidnapped, and according to a source with knowledge of Apple's security practices, the engineers are told to "go along with the demands and do whatever is necessary to survive."

Simply "Do whatever they ask. No heroes."

Apple: Can not Weaken Security of All of Our Products

Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell, who was also prepared with his testimony, argued how a court order could compel the company to circumvent its own encryption technology in an effort to get at the contents of an iPhone.

The FBI wants Apple to write a backdoored version of iOS that would help the feds circumvent iPhone's security measures. Apple countered that doing so would not only undermine the security of all its products, but also set a troubling example for the tech industry.

Swell said, "Building that software tool would not affect just one iPhone. It would weaken the security for all of them."

Apple Working on Unhackable iPhones

This kidnapping issue could also be resolved soon, as Apple is working on an unbreakable iPhone that even the company can not hack.

In addition, the company has also hired Frederic Jacobs, one of the key developers of World's most secure, encrypted messaging app Signal in order to enhance its iPhone security that even it can not break.

If this is not enough, Apple is also working on encrypting iCloud backups that only the account owner would have access, eliminating either way for the FBI or hackers that could expose its users data.