Florida Man Arrested in “Operation Hackerazzi” for Targeting Celebrities with Computer Intrusion, Wiretapping, and Identity Theft

fbi.gov

LOS ANGELES—A man accused of targeting the entertainment industry by hacking into the personal e-mail accounts of celebrities was arrested today after being charged with a range of cyber-related crimes, announced André Birotte Jr., the United States Attorney in Los Angeles; and Steven Martinez, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida, was arrested this morning by FBI agents without incident. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a sealed indictment yesterday charging Chaney with violations under Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, including: accessing protected computers without authorization; damaging protected computers without authorization; wiretapping; and aggravated identity theft.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed this morning, Chaney used several aliases while illegally obtaining personal information of numerous celebrities through a series of computer intrusions. The aliases used include: “trainreqsuckswhat,” “anonygrrl,” and “jaxjaguars911.”

Investigators believe that Chaney used publicly available sources to mine for data about his female and male victims, all of whom are associated with the entertainment industry. Once Chaney gained access and control of an e-mail account, he would obtain private information, such as e-mails and file attachments, according to the indictment. In addition, investigators believe that Chaney was led to new victims by accessing the address books of victims whose computers he already controlled.

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On The Internet, No One Watches The Wiretappers

Note: Heads up, this just in from our friend "Mike"...JDL
forbes.com
When Twitter revealed in January that it had received a Department of Justice order to hand over information on three users associated with WikiLeaks, the real surprise wasn’t that an Internet company had been asked to secretly spill user data for a criminal investigation. It was that, for once, the firm didn’t kept quiet about it.

Chris Soghoian, a privacy researcher at Indiana University and the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, has been following that Twitter case closely as a potentially precedent-shaping test for how and when the government can nab users’ online information. And now he’s released a paper that puts the case in context, outlining just how little Americans are told about the extent of government surveillance on the Internet.

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DOJ To Congress: We Shouldn’t Need A Warrant To Snoop Through Gmail

For years, privacy advocacy groups have been trying to make sure digital data has the same kinds of search and seizure protections that physical documents have. In recent times, even some major companies like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have joined together in the Digital Due Process coalition, which wants to modernize the nation’s out-of-date wiretapping laws. Those corporations want law enforcement agents to get a warrant issued by a judge before they are able to tap into sources of data stored in the cloud, such as web email. It’s been an uphill fight—to say the least—and today, the Department of Justice took a position that’s going to make their quest even harder.

According to a report from CNET, a DOJ lawyer told a Senate committee that if cops are required to get a search warrant to tap into email stored online, it could have an “adverse impact” on investigations. “Speed is essential,” he said. “If Congress slows down the process, this would have real-life consequences, particularly where human life is involved.”

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US wants to ease telecom wiretapping: report

economictimes.indiatimes.com
WASHINGTON: An Obama administration taskforce is seeking to overhaul a federal law requiring telephone and broadband carriers to ensure their networks can be wiretapped, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials from the Justice and Commerce Departments, the FBI and other federal agencies told the Times tougher legislation was necessary because some telecommunications firms have launched new services and system upgrades that impede surveillance.

As part of their draft legislation to expand and strengthen the 1994 law, the officials want more legal incentives and penalties to push AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other carriers to make sure any changes to their networks will not disrupt efforts to conduct wiretaps, the report added.

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Internet era espionage pits spy against tech

(AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO — Clashes between the maker of Blackberry smart phones and India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the latest rounds in a cat-and-mouse game pitting authorities against technologies racing beyond their grasp.

"What is going on is this elegant dance we go through when countries think their sovereignty is being threatened by new technology," said Mark Rasch, who headed the computer crimes division at the US Department of Justice for nine years.

"Governments are very ready to deploy technology that invades privacy, but privacy enhancing technologies make them nervous."

Security experts put the row over Blackberry encryption capabilities in the context of decades of skirmishing around the security implications of new Internet and communications technologies -- a battle that today also touches services like Google's Talk messaging system and the telephone and video services provided by Skype.

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Appeals Court Rules Against Secret Police GPS Tracking

wired.com
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the police can’t covertly track a suspect’s car using a GPS device for an extended period of time without getting a warrant.

The ruling in the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of a suspected cocaine dealer, saying that the use of a secret GPS tracking device on the man’s vehicle for two months violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a friend of the court brief supporting the challenge.

The government argued that a 1983 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Knotts, which allowed police to put a tracking beacon in a container to follow a driver to a secluded cabin, made it clear that GPS tracking was allowed without a judge’s approval.

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Top Secret America

washingtonpost.com

Starting yesterday and running throughout the week, the Washington Post is running a series of articles entitled Top Secret America. The purpose of the article is to ostensively discuss the growth of the US intelligence community and the reliance on private contractors in the post-9/11 world.

USB Flash Drive Spy Cufflinks

cg

All Spies must have their data with them at all times! We want absolutely everything to be mobile and with us at all times. Which makes these flash drive cufflinks only the obvious next step. This pair of USB drives will let you keep all of your documents directly on your wrist. Plus you can keep two different sets, since you’ll have a drive on each wrist.

It will give you a total of 4GB worth of space to fill up, there’s 2GB on each of the drives. You can even have the shiny drive engraved. Should you not like the shiny look you can also pick up gunmetal and gold finishes. They are small enough that it’s unlikely that another spy will notice them.

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You Too Can Have An iPad Spy Suit !

cg

"Q" meets Armani?

So you decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy an iPad. Now what? You can’t just slip it into your pocket like the rest of your electronics, but it just seems odd to carry it in a laptop bag. The iPad just doesn’t have a category so it’s trying to attempt to find the proper way to carry it around. Thankfully one suit maker is more than happy to create a custom suit that has a giant pocket on the inside just for your precious iPad.

Rush out and get yours Here

US DOJ: Operators helped FBI illegally obtain phone records

pcworld.idg.com.au
The FBI was so cavalier -- and telecom companies so eager to help -- that a verbal request or even one written on a Post-it note was enough for operators to hand over customer phone records, according to a damning report released on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.

The 289-page report details findings of the DOJ’s investigation into the FBI’s policies for requesting phone records from 2003 through 2006.

It found that in many cases the FBI issued written requests for telephone information, saying that it had secured the proper legal authority to make such requests, even though it didn’t.

Also, the report found that the FBI used far more casual methods to obtain records, including verbal requests and requests written on Post-it notes.

When the FBI did use formal written requests, it did not track their use or keep copies of them, the report found.

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Accused scientist spy breached top-secret policy in '02

washingtonexaminer.com

A Maryland scientist accused of giving classified defense information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer was under suspicion of breaching top-secret protocols as early as 2002, court documents said.

Despite the suspicion, Stewart Nozette was allowed to keep his clearance through 2007. It finally was stripped after federal authorities found classified information on his home computers while investigating him for fraud. He has since pleaded guilty to stealing almost $1 million in salary and benefits by lying on invoices for work he did for the Department of Defense and NASA through his nonprofit company, Alliance for Competitive Technology.

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