Social Security Identity Theft Data Breaches Bigger Issue than Most Expect

""As cyberattacks continue, analysts are seeing a new pattern: Hackers are focused on stealing personally identifiable information. That includes the security clearances of U.S. intelligence officers, with the reported theft of background information. It also includes information that's less sensitive but far-reaching — like Social Security numbers.

In an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish, NPR's Aarti Shahani took a look at just how many Americans' Social Security numbers have been stolen so far, and what's being done about it.

Let's start with stats. Following big data breaches like Anthem and, more recently, the federal government's Office of Personnel Management, how many Social Security numbers have been taken?

The question sent us on a wild goose chase.

The Social Security Administration says it does not have a count. So we turned to the Federal Trade Commission, which is the lead agency on identity theft for the federal government. FTC officials say they don't have anything approximating that number because they don't track data breaches. It's not part of their mandate from Congress.

The FTC suggested we contact Verizon. Their business unit, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, publishes a very popular annual report on breaches.

So, to get a tally on theft of Social Securitynumbers, the federal government sent NPR to a phone company?

Pretty much.

Verizon gets cyberattack data from dozens of organizations around the world, including federal agencies like the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

Jay Jacobs, lead data scientist at Verizon for the breach report, is a foremost expert who has been slicing and dicing this data for years. He estimates 60 percent to 80 percent of Social Security numbers have been stolen by hackers. NPR put the question to him multiple times and he stuck by this estimate.

That number is staggering. It's far larger than the estimate, by the federal workers union, that every federal employee is a victim.

Jacobs pointed out that while Social Security numbers have been stolen for decades, the scale of the problem is new. Before, socials were written or typed on a piece of paper, and breaking into one filing cabinet doesn't scale up. But now that everything is digital, if hackers compromise a server or data warehouse, that theft scales into the millions, quickly.

"It's gotten somewhat easy for the attacker," Jacobs says. "I think we're underestimating just how [many] records are out there."

So the problem of theft has changed by orders of magnitude, but just because your number was stolen doesn't mean you're a victim of identity theft?

Correct. The number of victims is definitely smaller. But we don't have a great estimate on how many people have actually been harmed. That'll unfold over time.

One key detail: The burden falls on you to vigilantly monitor if you are a victim. The Social Security Administration has a policy: You can't change your Social Security number just because it's been stolen. You need proof it's been abused. SSA is strict about it. In all of 2014, they replaced only 250 Social Security numbers based on misuse and disadvantage.""

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/15/414618292/theft-of-social-security-numbers-is-broader-than-you-might-think

Electric Grid Security Fears After Leaked Memo's Surface

""A leaked internal memorandum from the company running the electrical transformers near San Jose, California, that were attacked by snipers in April 2013 admits it is “years away” from promised upgrades, raising serious concerns about the security of other critical electrical transformers nationwide, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Publicly, Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation has been attempting to build confidence in its commitment to increase security following the attack on the Metcalf Transmission Substation by gunman using AK-47s, which caused $15 million worth of damage to 17 transformers.

The promise of upgrading security at the facility came after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered utilities nationwide to enact standards to protect vulnerable bulk-power systems.

As WND reported, under the FERC order, the facilities must take at least three steps to provide physical security. Owners and operators are required to perform a risk assessment of their systems to identify facilities which, if damaged or inoperable, could have a broad, critical impact. Security plans must then be developed to address potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Soon after the 2013 incident, WND reported the Department of Homeland Security, nevertheless, decided to cut back on training to help electric utilities harden their facilities.

DHS is charged with protecting the country’s critical infrastructures, including the national electric grid system, which would be dramatically affected by either a natural or high-altitude nuclear explosion unleashing an electromagnetic pulse.

Get the rest of this report, and others, at Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The internal PG&E memo, dated Aug. 30, 2014, leaked to a local television station revealed that despite publicly claiming it has spent millions of dollars on security upgrades at the Metcalf facility, the company was still years away from physically securing its electrical substations.

The memo said on Aug. 27, 2014, there was another early morning intrusion by unknown assailants who entered the general construction yard and then the substation at Metcalf.

Despite triggering alarms and the presence of two onsite security officers, the intruders were able to steal “several substantial pieces of equipment.”

The memo from Stephanie Douglas, senior director of corporate security, to the company’s president, Chris Johns, revealed that security upgrades have remained “unchanged.” It said those are “years away.”""

Click Here for More:

http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/leaked-memo-raises-electric-grid-security-fears/

Patents for Mind Control Technology

""You may have thought it sucked that California’s Senate advanced a bill to do away with personal belief objections to vaccines, but at the national level, Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson has introduced the Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015 which essentially bribes all schools into vaccine compliance… and she did it wearing a funny hat. This happens to be the same person, just by the way, who said the Haiti earthquake was “a blessing.”

Fertility rates continue to drop, as studies show Millenials are the slowest to have babies than any other women in U.S. history, but of course it can’t be a combination of social engineering and slow kill. On the totally non-related (we’re sure) flipside, record numbers of couples are taking out $30,000 loans not to buy houses or fancy cars but to receive costly in vitro fertilization treatments because so many people are having problems even getting pregnant these days.

Did you know that the oil and gas industry is recycling fracking water that may have as many as 586 chemicals in it and making bank selling it to California’s drought-stricken farmers for irrigation? Yummy.

Meanwhile, there’s a huge boom in new patents for mind control technology as we officially enter the “pervasive technology age,” and even though Microsoft filed 89 in just the last year, there’s another, perhaps even more worrisome company that has them beat… Oh, and roaming chicken velociraptor hybrid death squads are also discussed.

Technology is being suppressed for reasons of national security, and Melissa talks to people on the street to see if anyone can pronounce the ingredients commonly found in our food these days.

And… more. So much of it. Thanks for tuning in!"

Please Read More Stories From Important Source:

http://truthstreammedia.com/2015/05/18/truthstream-news-episode-02-diet-injections-and-injunctions/

Monsanto Corporatocracy Protected by FBI Under Guise of National Security

""Monsanto corporate executives probably thought they had a decent amount of influence with the federal government, but they may never have thought that their genetically modified food products would become protectorates of the FBI, all under the guise of "national security."

As reported by the Des Moines Register in recent days, "protecting America's lucrative [GMO] seed corn industry" now rises to the level of fighting terrorists and government spies, according to the FBI, which has invoked broader powers authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, in a case against two Chinese siblings who allegedly plotted to steal patented GMO seeds from cornfields in Iowa.

The paper further reported:

Stealing hybrid seeds enhanced with traits such as drought resistance doesn't pose the same immediate threat as a suicide bomber, but the FBI treats economic espionage and similar trade secret theft as dangerous threats to national security.

Monsanto gets the power of the intelligence community to do its bidding

"It's people's lives," Christopher Burgess, CEO of security consulting firm Prevendra and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, told the paper. "It's our livelihood. It's why we feed so much of the world is because we invest in research and development."

The "feeding the whole world" argument is controversial in and of itself, based on scientific findings that, among other things, GMO corn lacks nutrients but is full of chemicals, according a 2012 paper entitled, "2012 Nutritional Analysis: Comparison of GMO Corn versus Non-GMO Corn." An earlier study found that rats fed a steady diet of GMO corn developed major tumors, with 70 percent of female rats dying early.

Nevertheless, GMO maize is now a protected state secret, even though defense attorneys for the two Chinese siblings have argued the government's protection under national security auspices is unprecedented and represent a dangerous overreach.

Defendants Mo Hailong and Mo Yun have been charged with planning to steal patented GMO seeds from agri-business giants DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto, the paper said. The idea, according to court records, was to steal the seeds and bring them back to China where they would allegedly be copied, then counterfeited by a large Chinese agri-corporation, Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group. If convicted, the suspects could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.

The Des Moines Register reported further:

In 2013, Nicholas Klinefeldt, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, indicted the siblings and five other Chinese citizens on charges of theft of trade secrets.

In a move that defense attorneys call "breathtaking," prosecutors plan to introduce evidence at trial gathered under FISA, which allows the FBI to bypass a traditional search warrant. Agents seeking evidence instead need only get approval from a secret Washington, D.C.-based court designed to hear complex national security cases.

Gathering and presenting secret evidence before a secret court

That court is called the FISA court, and it is staffed by regular federal judges who serve non-renewable seven-year terms. It should be noted that the court's proceedings are carried out in secret, and that because these federal judges are not fluent in intelligence community/national security jurisprudence, the court rarely turns down a warrant request.""

http://www.naturalnews.com/049544_Monsanto_FBI_GMO_seeds.html

Chinese-Russian-Iranian Coalition Heads Assemble in Moscow Opposing NATO Debut

""Talk about joint efforts between China, India, Russia and Iran against NATO expansion was augmented with plans for tripartite military talks between Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.

Defense ministers and military officials from all over the world gathered on April 16 at the landmark Radisson Royal or Hotel Ukraina, one of the best pieces of Soviet architecture in Moscow, which is known as one of the “Seven Sisters” that were constructed during Joseph Stalin’s time. The two-day event hosted by the Russian Defense Ministry was the fourth annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS).

Civilian and military officials from over seventy countries, including NATO members, attended. Fifteen defense ministers took part in the event. However, aside from Greece, defense ministers of NATO countries did not participate in the conference.

Unlike previous years, the MCIS organizers did not send Ukraine an invitation for 2015’s confab. According to Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, “At this stage of the brutal information antagonism in regard to the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, we decided not to inflame the situation at the conference and at this stage made the decision not to invite our Ukrainian colleagues to the event.”

On a personal note, as a matter of interest I have followed these types of conferences for years, because important statements about foreign and security policies tend to come out of them. This year I was keen for the inauguration of this particular security conference. Aside from it taking place at a time where the geopolitical landscape of the globe is rapidly shifting, I was interested to see what the conference would produce since I was asked in 2014 through the Russian Embassy in Canada if I was interested in attending the IV MCIS.

The rest of the world speaks: Hearing non-Euro-Atlantic security concerns

The Moscow conference is the Russian equivalent to the Munich Security Conference held at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Germany. There, however, are critical differences between the two events.

While the Munich Security Conference is established around Euro-Atlantic security and views global security from the ‘Atlanticist’ standpoint of NATO, the MCIS represents a much broader and diverse global perspective. It represents the rest of the non-Euro-Atlantic world’s security concerns, particularly the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Ranging from Argentina, India, and Vietnam to Egypt and South Africa, the conference at the Hotel Ukraina brought a variety of big and small players to the table whose voices and security interests, in one way or another, are otherwise undermined and ignored in Munich by US and NATO leaders.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who holds the rank of a flag officer that is equal to that of a four-star general in most NATO countries, opened the conference. Also speaking and seated next to Shoigu were Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other high-ranking officials. All of them addressed Washington’s multispectral warfare that has utilized color revolutions, like EuroMaidan in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, for regime change. Shoigu cited Venezuela and China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as failed color revolutions.

Foreign Minister Lavrov reminded the attendees that the possibilities of a dangerous world conflict were increasing due to the lack of concern by the US and NATO for the security of others and a lack of constructive dialogue. When making his argument, Lavrov cited US President Franklin Roosevelt by saying, “There can be no middle ground here. We shall have to take the responsibility for world collaboration, or we shall have to bear the responsibility for another world conflict.” “I believe that they formulated one of the main lessons of the most devastating global conflict in history: it is only possible to meet common challenges and preserve the peace through collective, joint efforts based on respect for the legitimate interests of all partners,” he explained about what world leaders learned from the Second World War.

Shoigu had over ten bilateral meetings with the different defense ministers and chiefs who arrived in Moscow for the MCIS. During a meeting with the Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic, Shoigu said that Moscow considers Belgrade a reliable partner in military cooperation.

Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition: Washington’s nightmare

The myth that Russia is internationally isolated was shot down again during the conference, which has also resulted in some important announcements.

Kazakhstani Defense Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Shoigu announced that the implementation for a joint Kazakhstani-Russian air defense system had begun. This is not only indicative of the integration of the air space of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, but part of a trend. It heralded other announcements against NATO’s missile defense shield.

The most vigorous statement though was that of Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan. Brigadier-General Deghan said that Iran wanted China, India, and Russia to stand together in jointly opposing the eastward expansion of NATO and the threat posed by the alliance’s missile shield project to their collective security.

During a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, Shoigu emphasized that Moscow’s military ties with Beijing are its “overriding priority.” In another bilateral meeting the defense honchos of Iran and Russia confirmed that their cooperation will be part of the cornerstones of a new multipolar order and that Moscow and Tehran were in harmony in their strategic approach to the US.

After Dehghan and the Iranian delegation met with Shoigu and their Russian counterparts, it was announced that a tripartite summit may take place between Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran. The idea was later endorsed by the Chinese delegation.

The geopolitical environment is changing and it is not sympathetic to US interests. Not only has a Eurasian Economic Union been formed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia in the post-Soviet heart of Eurasia, but Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran — the Eurasian Triple Entente — have been in a long process of coming together politically, strategically, economically, diplomatically, and militarily.

Eurasian harmony and integration challenges the US position in its “Western perch” and bridgehead in Europe and even orients US allies to act more independently. This is one of the central themes explored by my book The Globalization of NATO.

Former US security bigwig Zbigniew Brzezinski warned US elites against the formation of a Eurasian “coalition that could eventually seek to challenge America’s primacy.” According to Brzezinski such a Eurasian alliance would arise as a “Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition” with Beijing as its focal point.

“For Chinese strategists, confronting the trilateral coalition of America and Europe and Japan, the most effective geopolitical counter might well be to try and fashion a triple alliance of its own, linking China with Iran in the Persian Gulf/Middle East region and with Russia in the area of the former Soviet Union,” Brzezinski warns.

“In assessing China’s future options, one has to consider also the possibility that an economically successful and politically self-confident China — but one which feels excluded from the global system and which decides to become both the advocate and the leader of the deprived states of the world — may decide to pose not only an articulate doctrinal but also a powerful geopolitical challenge to the dominant trilateral world,” he explains.

More or less, this is the track that the Chinese are following. Minister Wanquan flatly told the MCIS that a fair world order was needed.

The threat for the US is that a Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition could, in Brzezinski’s own words, “be a potent magnet for other states dissatisfied with the status quo.""

http://www.globalresearch.ca/did-a-chinese-russian-iranian-coalition-opposing-nato-debut-in-moscow/5445273

Jade Helm is Run by the Muslim Brotherhood

""It is one thing for people of Islamic faith to serve the American government out of a sense of duty, honor and patriotism. It is quite another for people of any faith with ties to known terrorist organizations to be allowed to serve in highly secure and sensitive positions involving people with clear ties to a major terrorist organization. In this context, I am speaking about people holding key positions, many of them inside of the Department of Homeland Security, who are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. And when the Commander-In-Chief is one of these individuals, America has a duty to speak out and take steps to force the government to remove these individuals, with very questionable loyalties, from office. Further, two days ago I alleged that there was a strong Muslim Brotherhood presence in the White House and some questioned the assertion. Subsequently, a significant part of this article will deal with validating these very serious concerns.

A Stern Warning from the Highest Levels of the American Military

One year ago, retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Tom McInerney, the former assistant vice chief of staff as well as the commander in chief of U.S. Air Forces Europe, shocked the media when he announced, on a radio program, the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood inside the U.S. government. The event received scant attention from the mainstream media (MSM).
McInerney’s assertions are echoed in the bestselling book jointly authored by Aaron Klein and Brenda Elliott, entitled Impeachable Offenses, which exposes how Obama has weakened America both domestically and abroad by emboldening America’s enemies by tacitly supporting a Muslim Brotherhood revolution, spurning our allies, and minimizing the very real threat of Islamic fundamentalism which now exists in key positions within the Federal government.

McInerney’s allegations are indeed backed up by irrefutable proof as it is now crystal clear that President Barack Obama has placed individuals who represent, or who are a part of, the Muslim Brotherhood, into high security positions inside the Federal government.

We in America have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the name of fighting terrorism and have tragically forsaken our civil liberties in the pursuit of this fight. It is therefore, unconscionable, that we would allow the enemies of freedom-loving people to serve in highly sensitive positions within the Federal government.  Here is a small sample size of the degree of penetration that the Muslim Brotherhood has achieved inside of the Obama administration.

The Deputy Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin

The embarrassed and disgraced wife of deposed Congressman, Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin, has undeniable family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In an interview with FrontPageMag, anti-Islamist activist and author Walid Shoebat explained that Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, is and was deeply involved with the Muslim Brotherhoodand that Huma’s brother, Hassan, is on the board of the Oxford Centre For Islamic Studies (OCIS) where he is a fellow and partners with other board members including “Al-Qaeda associate, Omar Naseef and the notorious Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi; both have been listed as OCIS Trustees.” Has the FBI stopped vetting Federal governmental employees in highly sensitive positions?

Department of Homeland Security Deputy Mayor, Arif Alikhan In the publication, Discover the Networks, the editors discuss the background as it relates to highly sensitive federal agency employment (e.g. DHS) and the Muslim terrorist affiliations ofArif Alikhan. Alikhan’s resume is very impressive. “Former deputy mayor of Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles Was responsible for derailing the LAPD’s plan to monitor activities within the Los Angeles Muslim community Was appointed as assistant secretary for the Office of Policy Development in Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security in 2009 Became a Professor of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism in 2010.” Now serving as a distinguished, visiting professor at the National Defense University. Alikhan was responsible for derailing the LAPD‘s efforts to monitor radical and potential terrorist activities within the city’s Muslim community, where numerous radical mosques were known to have provided aid and comfort to the 9/11 hijackers. Alikhan, an openly devout Sunni Muslim, has openly participated in a Muslim Public Affairs Council fundraiser titled “Be the Change,” in order to support that organization’s leadership-development programs which openly advocates for the Sharia Law takeover of the United States. The open support for this Sharia Law intention to overthrow the U.S. government, on the part of an American citizen, is illegal. When such an advocate is a Federal employee in a sensitive position this person should be disqualified one from holding sensitive positions within the government.

Mohammed Elibiary, Advisor to DHS Security

Mohamed Elibiary is an advisor to the Department of Homeland Security.  Out of this list he probably is the most controversial.   According to a November 9, 2011 CBN News article, Elibiary spoke at a Texas conference in 2004 and honored Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini as a “great Islamic visionary.” Do any of you remember the Jimmy Carter era of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, then you would understand treason which underlies Elibiary’s assertions.

Elibiary is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council.  He was granted access to a nationwide database that contained terror watch lists and sensitive FBI reports, which he was accused of leaking portions of the documents to the media in order to spread charges of “Islamophobia” within Governor Rick Perry’s Texas government.

Obama Administration Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, Eboo Patel

If you were on the FBI team vetting Presidential appointees, would you grant your seal of approval to the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who has defended the convicted WTC bombers? Well, somebody thought Eboo Patel, the man in question would make a splendid member of Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

Additionally, Patel, himself, spoke at a Muslim Students Association and ISNA Convention, while appearing on a panel, and also being partnered with Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan is the grandson of Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and has defended the convicted WTC bombers. Wahhaj allegedly advocates for the Islamic takeover of America under the banner of Sharia Law.""

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/04/25/the-muslim-brotherhood-is-in-charge-of-jade-helm/

FBI Selling the Old/New Brand of Malware to the Public for the Sake of 'Security' as Policy Change

""The FBI’s bespoke surveillance malware—called Computer and IP Address Verifier (CIPAV)—is designed to track criminal suspects by logging their IP address, MAC address, computer programs running, operating system details, browser details, and other identifying computer information.

As far as spyware goes, it’s unusually circumscribed—unlike consumer keylogging and social media snooping surveillance tools, CIPAV isn’t able to spy on the entire computer at will, just a narrow list of identifiers. That means it’s a weirdly weak invader, but that’s a deliberate, built-in privacy protection, a way to keep the FBI’s spyware ostensibly legal.

Despite limitations, the FBI’s spyware capabilities are hugely powerful. As the Washington Post pointed out:

The most powerful FBI surveillance software can covertly download files, photographs and stored e-mails, or even gather real-time images by activating cameras connected to computers, say court documents and people familiar with this technology.
Yet there’s been zilch in the news about this government malware since 2013.

The FBI’s basement baby

The FBI keeps its malware deployment on the down low low. The few official documents available that provide spyware details use take care to reveal as little as possible.

“The exact nature of these commands, processes, capabilities, and their configuration is classified as a law enforcement sensitive investigative technique, the disclosure of which would likely jeopardize other ongoing investigations and/or future use of the technique,” an FBI agent’s affidavit reads.

So the FBI says it can’t explain exactly how CIPAV works because then the bad guys will figure it out and get away. If this argument sounds stale, it’s because it’s the same wobbly rationale the FBI uses to keep its heavy-handed cell phone tracking practices secret.

What we do know about CIPAV largely stems from court documents from one 2007 case. The FBI installed its malware on a teenaged bomb-threat suspect’s computer by tricking him into clicking on a phishing message on MySpace by impersonating Associated Press journalists. The FBI created a fake news article that contained malware about the bomb threats and sent it to the suspect in hopes that he’d click on it.

And the first and only semi-confirmed CIPAV attack discovered “in the wild,” before it was documented in a court case, happened in 2013, when researchers fingered the FBI as the source of a malware attack on Freedom Hosting, the anonymous hidden service notorious for hosting child porn. (The FBI later confirmed this.)

Another FBI spyware was used in 2013 to inject surveillance malware into a Colorado bomb threat suspect’s Yahoo email account. We know that the spyware allowed the FBI to see the webpages the suspect was visiting, which means it had a wider range of capabilities than CIPAV.

You may be wondering, who cares about the privacy of bomb threat suspects and pedophiles? It’s not exactly a sympathetic clan. The issue here isn’t that known pedophiles shouldn’t be tracked or that there’s a general problem with the FBI using warrants to narrowly track suspects of terrible crimes—that’s what it’s supposed to do! The issue is that the FBI’s current setup leaves too much room for to violate the privacy of people who aren’t suspects, and too many unanswered questions about its powerful spy tools.

Take the Freedom Hosting case for instance. All of the sites that used the anonymous server, including many that had absolutely nothing to do with child porn, were hit with the FBI’s spyware. In the case of the Colorado bomb threat, the FBI screwed up and originally received a warrant to spy on the wrong email address thanks to a typo, meaning some random person whose only crime was accidentally choosing an email address similar to a wanted criminal had their computer vulnerable to intensive FBI spying. The FBI saw no reason to fess up to spying on innocent people in those cases.

And since the FBI can use spyware to go after “zombified” computers infected with botnets, it could end up putting spyware on peoples’ computers just because someone else had already infected them with malware. This is like the FBI searching your house without telling you because a criminal had already broken in earlier.

We want to know more

What little we know about the FBI’s history with spyware raises questions. For instance, there was internal confusion about how to deploy spyware that suggests that the FBI hasn’t been sure how much it intruded on privacy. While the agency now requires a warrant and a Pen/Trap order to use CIPAV, documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show several FBI agents discussed deploying the spyware without warrants before finally asking for clarification in 2007.

Since we know the FBI has been using spyware since 2001, that’s six years before the FBI cemented its policy. How many other lingering privacy questions are still being debated about legal spyware use internally? And shouldn’t Congress and the general public be able to participate in these privacy debates? Shouldn’t people have the right to know if their computer has been accidentally snooped on, or if they’ve acquired government-issued spyware as collateral damage?""

http://gizmodo.com/the-fbi-has-its-own-secret-brand-of-malware-1694821520