The BitTorrent community used to think that law enforcement had better things to do than hunt them down, but that all changed in mid-2005, when US-based EliteTorrents was raided by the FBI and ICE. The site had over 130,000 users, and was run by a small number of dedicated staff, including one 19 year-old who recently spoke about the ordeal. He gives a peek inside the first big Torrent bust of what has become an ongoing war on piracy for US law enforcement.
An element of hacker group Anonymous announced today that it has intercepted a conference call between the FBI and UK law enforcement wherein they discuss tracking down Anonymous. The 16 minute call was recorded and has been posted on various sites, including YouTube. The FBI and Scotland Yard have confirmed their call was illegally intercepted.
Hey, are you "overly concerned about privacy" online or use anonymizers and Web portals? Do you like to check your ISP-provided email account on the road? How about talking to your cohorts in PC games? Yeah? Well, here's some bad news: according to the FBI and DoJ, there's a good chance that you're a terrorist if you do any of that in an Internet café -- and they encourage others to track your license plate, ethnicity, name and more if you exhibit any of those "potential indicators."
All the fire and brimstone rhetoric following the MegaUpload shutdown makes it seem like there was no legitimate use for the site. Despite that image, thousands of users were using MegaUpload to store and share their own files, which have now been lost. In response, Pirate Parties in several countries are putting together a list of affected users in preparation for a lawsuit against the FBI. 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a computer programmer for allegedly stealing proprietary software code from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). Bo Zhang, the man accused of stealing the source code, worked at the bank as a contract employee assigned to work on further developing a specific portion of the Government-Wide Accounting and Reporting Program (GWA), software which is owned by the Department of Treasury to track government spending.
Seven men connected by friendship or business association were arrested this week for allegedly participating in insider trading, the Federal Bureau (FBI) of Investigation announced in a candid press release. These latest arrests are the most recent developments in "Operation Perfect Hedge," the FBI's systematic targeting of insider trading in the hedge fund industry that began more than four years ago.
A 23-year old Arizona man is in FBI custody today charged with breaking into Sony Pictures computer systems as a member of LulzSec. Cody Kretsinger is alleged to have used proxy servers to access Sony’s systems back in May. The FBI is not making any statements, but other search warrants are apparently being executed.
After months of watching helplessly while Anonymous and LulzSec pulled down our virtual pants and stuck their tongue out at Internet users worldwide, several members of the two groups are now being taught a crucial lesson: nobody likes a smartass. We reported yesterday that the FBI raided the homes of 3 suspected Anons in New York, but it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg. Authorities in the US and UK say they've slapped the cuffs of 15 alleged Anon affiliates and one person possibly associated with LulzSec. Oh, and one more guy.
What's ironic about the hacking group known as Anonymous is that it's virtually impossible to remain truly anonymous on the Internet. We're not saying hackers can't hide themselves really well, but throw enough time and resources into the hunt, and chances are they'll be tracked down. The FBI has done just that and raided the homes of three suspected Anonymous hackers living in New York.
The notion of having honor among thieves doesn't necessarily extend into the underground hacking community in the U.S., a world the FBI and Secret Service have successfully burrowed into and, in a sense, even maintain at least a modicum of control. A new report suggests that one in four hackers are FBI informers who secretly drop dimes on their peers rather than face what could be stiff penalties for running afoul of cyber laws.Connect with MaximumPC
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