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FBI sells Spy Cameras.

  • 23-05-2001 4:59pm
    #1
    Hobbes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,264 ✭✭✭✭


    <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
    > Subject: Spammers hijack FBI software
    > I saw this on slashdot the other day, I still can't believe they
    > getting away with this!
    > (forwards removed)
    >
    >FBI's Surveillance system sells Spy Cameras.
    >
    >Vesterålen, NORWAY (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Internet users
    >that are
    >being scanned hourly by FBI's Carnivore system are getting the benefit
    >of an
    >early warning system thanks to a bug in the Government backed spy
    >software. A
    >mistake in the settings in the current release of Carnivore software, has
    >allowed
    >ad spammers have to hijack the software for their own ends.
    >
    >Carnivore which now goes by the less beastly moniker of DCS1000, drawn
    >from
    >the work it does as a "digital collection system." The investigative
    >agency built
    >the tool to monitor the Internet communications of suspects under its
    >surveillance,
    >but the system, housed on computers at Internet service
    >providers,
    >also can collect e-mail messages from people who are not part
    >of an FBI probe.
    >
    >Exploiting a coding flaw in the DCS communications structure, ingenious
    >hackers
    >have managed to get Carnivore to point to certain advertising companies.
    >Now,
    >instead of monitoring the users actions and reporting to back to FBI
    >remote servers,
    >Carnivore is serving up unwanted ads for such things as the X10
    >hidden camera.
    >
    >Sven Hergensan of Vesterålen, Norway was the first to discover that
    >the pop
    >up adverts weren't part of his normal browsing. In a phone interview,
    >Sven told
    >our reporter "I was running a scanner on a link into a search engine
    >on my server
    >when all of a sudden an X10 advert for spy cameras popped up. At that
    >point I knew
    >something was odd, and after enabling a packet sniffer and doing some
    >in depth examination,
    >I found signature references to the Carnivore spec were broadcasting out
    >to the
    >advertising site".
    >
    >Hergensan suggested that if you see a pop-up advert appear for X10 then
    >there is a
    >very good chance that Carnivore has been monitoring your traffic and will
    >continue to do
    >so until you take actions to stop it. To ensure that your system is no
    >longer being
    >monitored, it is wise to both end your connection to your ISP and reboot
    >your machine.
    >
    >InterAdWorks, the advertising company in question, refused to answer any
    >of our questions
    >or Mr. Hergensan's allegations. X10 also refused to comment on the incident
    >except to say
    >that they were in no way responsible for the pop-up ads.
    >
    >A spokesman for the FBI's Cybercrime Unit, told us, "We are taking this prank
    >very seriously
    >and since it is an ongoing investigation, we have no comments at this time".

    </font>


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