
FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects - carolinea
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323997004578641993388259674-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwMTEwNDEyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email
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detcader
Interesting paragraph here: "The FBI develops some hacking tools internally
and purchases others from the private sector. With such technology, the bureau
can remotely activate the microphones in phones running Google Inc.'s Android
software to record conversations, one former U.S. official said. It can do the
same to microphones in laptops without the user knowing, the person said.
Google declined to comment."

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declan
Yep. Also see my article from 2006:

[http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html](http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html)
"The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance
in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone
and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a
"roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for
use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of
conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping
him."

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betterunix
What is amazing is that the same government that is funding these activities
has also drummed up the fear of Chinese attacks on our computer systems. The
same techniques being used by the FBI could be used for industrial espionage
or to spy on government officials. We cannot have it both ways -- either we
give up on expanding law enforcement power like this and encourage computer
security, or we give priority to the police and accept attacks by foreign
powers (and ironically, criminals) as collateral damage.

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dobbsbob
This is just using FinFisher/Spy malware to turn on the mic it's in their
advertisement that was leaked by Wikileaks to youtube. Typically deployed as a
fake update or some other popup screen the user has to agree too. They could
also use Playstore to download/install whatever apps they wanted and unlock
the phone if Google cooperates with investigations (they probably do) without
needing your approval.

Another method would be to send binary OTA SMS messages to the carrier's
closed simcard and turn on the mic, or camera, or ping it with type 0 sms so
everytime your sim ackknowledges they can track you regardless of gps being
disabled.

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marvin
"Google declined to comment".

So, does the FBI now use National Security Letters as part of their regular
law enforcement operations or does Google keep quiet about this just because
this sounds bad?

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altrego99
This could mean a multitude of things. I wish the article had reference to
some source. I seriously doubt that FBI can choose to record from any brand
new Android phone - the entire OS being open source and routinely disassembled
by the folks at xda.

More likely the source of this is some malware/virus/app that when installed,
grants FBI the ability to activate the mic at will. In which case, the article
would be somewhat misguided.

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baltcode
So does this bug show up on
[http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list](http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list)
?

