For age , phishing defrauder have been setting up bogus tech supporting hotlines , websites — even bastard Netflix logins — to found malicious malware on unsuspecting simple machine . And evidently , even our own FBI has been getting on the playfulness . Because back in 2007 , the FBI create a fake Seattle Times web Sir Frederick Handley Page , all to catch a in high spirits school bomb threat suspect .
The bogus article was bring out yesterday by American Civil Liberties Union principal technologist , Christopher Soghoian , on Twitter .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/526815553852571648
The imitative story , which was about the dud threat itself in hopes of piquing the teens ’ rarity , even come with a phony Associated Press byline and was written “ in the trend of The Seattle Times . ” This included additional information about subscribing and publicizing .
What ’s more , what with this being 2007 and all , the connection was air directly to the jejune defendant ’s MySpace write up . Once the teen clicked the link , the FBI - brand malware would be establish on his computer , permit the Agency to in the end nail the purport perpetrator . Which it did , at last identifying and arresting the suspect on June 14 .
Unsurprisingly , The Seattle Times is less than pleased with the revelation .
“ Not only does that cross a line , it erase it , ” she said .
“ Our report and our power to do our problem as a government watchdog are free-base on trustfulness . Nothing is more central to that trustfulness than our independence — from law enforcement , from political science , from corporations and from all other especial stake , ” Best said . “ The FBI ’s action , taken without our knowledge , trade on our reputation and put it at risk . ”
https://twitter.com/embed/status/526818138177171457
The Associated Press also had some rough news for the FBI ’s underhanded manoeuvre , tellingThe Seattle Times :
“ We are extremely implicated and find it insufferable that the FBI misappropriated the name of The Associated Press and published a false story ascribe to AP , ” Paul Colford , director of AP media relations . “ This gambit violated AP ’s name and subvert AP ’s credibleness . ”
Of naturally , the FBI is claiming that it only deploys technique like this in the rarest of circumstances and “ only when there is sufficient reason to conceive it could be successful in break up a scourge . ” Still , it ’s certainly disheartening to see the FBI employing the exact same tactics — and levels of transparency — used to plant malicious and threatening malware , something many of us have probable experience firsthand .
The EFF posted172 Page it assume via FOIA detail the FBI ’s use of its phishing pecker , which you could read in their integrality below . [ The Seattle Times , EFF ]
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