Tag Archive for: meant

Boulder County buys phone-hacking tech using money meant to treat, prevent drug addiction

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Last month, Boulder County spent the first of what it hopes will be millions of dollars for the treatment and prevention of drug addiction, courtesy of lawsuits against the drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies that helped fuel America’s opioid epidemic.

Among the spending was money for controversial yet widely used technology to gain access to locked cell phones and computers. Law enforcement officials argue such products are necessary to find and prosecute drug dealers, whose illegal enterprises have produced an ever-mounting body count.

Yet the increasing usage of such products has occurred largely without public knowledge and debate, or corresponding evolution of regulation to protect against potential abuse — a chief concern of privacy experts and human rights groups who warn the tools are an unprecedented, unchecked expansion of police power.

“There’s this really remarkable power that police have that can be used quietly and silently,” said John Davisson, senior counsel for Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s really putting a lot of power into the hands of law enforcement.”

Crucial tool for catching drug dealers

Spending on mobile device forensics tools, or MDFTs, as they’re known, represents just a sliver of Boulder County’s opioid settlement spending so far: $81,250 — 4.5% of an $1.8 million total first funding round — went to purchase products from Cellebrite and GrayKey, which unlock Android and Apple/iOS products, respectively, and Nighthawk and Magnet Forensics, which assembles extracted data into a readable format and “puts it all together in a pattern,” according to Boulder County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Jeff Pelletier, who presented on the purchases at a December meeting of Boulder County’s Regional Opioids Council.

The equipment will go to Longmont Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, which handles narcotics investigations and Boulder County’s Drug Task Force, which serves the same function for most of the county, excluding Longmont and Louisville. A third Cellebrite device will go to Boulder County’s Digital Forensics Lab, which aids…

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Iran says cyberattack on gas stations meant to ‘disrupt lives’

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Massive cyberattack on Iran’s gas stations on Tuesday created shockwaves.

A day after a massive cyberattack disrupted the country’s fuel distribution system, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for robust measures to “anticipate and prevent” such attacks.

Addressing a Cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Raisi said the aim of the attack was to “disrupt people’s lives,” adding that preventing such attacks is essential.

He also urged the Oil Ministry to take necessary action to “compensate people” for the disruption caused by the attack.

After the meeting, Raisi accompanied by other senior officials visited the ministry to review a probe into the attack and its causes.

The attack took place around 11 am on Tuesday, causing widespread disruption and chaos at gas stations across Iran. It targeted the software that supports a smart card payment for subsidized fuel, used widely in Iran.

Initially, officials attributed the malfunction to “technical glitches”, but hours later it was confirmed to be a high-intensity cyberattack.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for it. Importantly, the attack came on the heels of the anniversary of November 2019 protests in Iran over fuel price hikes.

Without naming anyone, Raisi said attempts are being made to make people angry by sowing disorder and disruption.

“The purpose of this action was to disrupt people’s lives so that they can achieve their specific goals,” he asserted, without elaborating.

Raisi said Iran must be “fully prepared” to deal with cyber warfare and to “prevent the enemy from creating problems” in people’s lives.

Iran has been hit by a series of cyberattacks in recent years, mostly targeting nuclear facilities, petroleum factories, railway stations, and ports.

Officials have on many occasions blamed Israel for the attacks.

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Prosecutors: QAnon Shaman, others meant to capture and assassinate

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  • Justice Department prosecutors said people who participated in the pro-Trump attack of the US Capitol planned to “capture and assassinate elected officials.”
  • They made the assessment in a detention memo for Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman or Jake Angeli, who they say left a threat for Vice President Mike Pence.
  • The top prosecutor overseeing the Capitol insurrection cases, however, said a day later there was no “direct evidence” about assassination plans.
  • Chansley evaded Capitol police and went to the dais where Pence stood, leaving a note that said “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming,” according to court documents.
  • He later told FBI agents that Pence was “a child-trafficking traitor” and that he planned to return to Washington, DC, for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Some of the people who participated in the pro-Trump attack of the US Capitol intended to “capture and assassinate elected officials” including Vice President Mike Pence, according to federal prosecutors.

Department of Justice prosecutors made the assessment in a detention memo for the QAnon Shaman, who goes by Jake Angeli but whose real name is Jacob Anthony Chansley. The court filings were reviewed by Insider and first reported by Reuters.

Michael Sherwin, the top prosecutor overseeing Capitol riot cases, tried to walk back the claim Friday. In a press conference, he said “the justice department didn’t have “any direct evidence of kill capture teams.”

Prosecutors in Chansley’s case said he should be held in jail while awaiting trial, arguing that his erratic behavior made him a flight risk and his massive following in the QAnon community allowed him to quickly raise enough money to flee.

Chansley is one of its most visible followers of the false QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that President Donald Trump is fighting a “deep state” of cannibalistic, pedophilic devil-worshippers. He stormed the Capitol while shirtless and wearing large horns, fur pelts, and war paint, carrying a 6-foot-long spear.

The insurrectionists, at the urging of President Donald Trump, tried to stop Congress from counting the…

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Zoom bug meant attackers could brute force their way into password-protected meetings

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Zoom has patched a security hole that could have allowed attackers to break their way into password-protected private calls.

Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Graham Cluley