Again the Government is arguing (against the Constitution) that is has a right to your data without a Warrant.  This data includes things like phone calls, browser history, and other private data.  It cites needing this to help keep you secure.

A quote famously attributed to Benjamin Franklin says “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

We aren’t talking here about denying the government needed access to resources or even information in the rare cases it actually needs it.  We are talking about Eliminating Due Process and the checks and balances built into the law that says to obtain this information it MUST have probable cause/belief of wrong doing AND obtain a Warrant supported by “Oath or affirmation” (signed by a judge) describing the places to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.  4th Amendment to the US Constitution. It’s called the “Bill of Rights”.  It should be mandatory for anyone in “Law Enforcement” but it seems many see it not as a protection of our Freedoms and way of life, but an inconvenience.   They would like to eliminate any troublesome Constitution and checks and balances and just get the information because it feels it has the “Right” to it.  Anyone fighting for this kind of change really doesn’t understand what they swore to protect.   Read more on ZDNet below. http://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-now-wants-access-to-internet-browsing-history-without-a-warrant/?ftag=TRE17cfd61&bhid=22193863556109502702970333497805  

Do you feel safer now that the government can hack into your iPhone?  You shouldn’t.  1 reason is that it did not invent this hack. It was discovered by an outside company.  It is believed that it is from an Israeli firm, so not even US based.  Will the government disclose this method to Apple or the people effected by it?  Very Doubtful.  This is like having a combination lock on your front door that an unknown number of people have the code too.  Now do you feel safe?  Read more on dailydot.com below.

‘We are in this together,’ said the FBI’s letter to local cops.

Source: FBI offers its new iPhone hack to local law enforcement agencies

I have Good News and Bad News on the FBI vs. Apple front.  The good news is the FBI managed to gain access to the phone without Apple’s help.  The Bad News?  That this now means that there is a hack out there that allows people to gain access to data on your encrypted phone without your approval.  Yes, you are now less secure.  Will the FBI publish this exploit now that it knows about it?  Doubtful.  While it might like to keep this trick to itself for future use, it is by not disclosing this making ALL iPhone users less secure.  How hard would it be for a foreign government to do the same thing?  Hackers?  Read more below on the Register.

It’s all over! Egg and FBI faces in perfect alignment

Source: US govt says it has cracked killer’s iPhone, legs it from Apple fight

We have seen this in the wild.  The users are targeted and it seems legit.  The key to not falling for this stuff is communication.

Since the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began tracking BEC scams in late 2013, it has compiled statistics on more than 7,000 U.S. companies that have been victimized—with total dollar losses exceeding $740 million. That doesn’t include victims outside the U.S. and unreported losses, the FBI stated. According to IC3, since the beginning of 2015 there has been a 270% increase in identified BEC victims.

Source: FBI: Major business e-mail scam blasts 270% increase since 2015

Score one for the good guys!  FBI takes down Darkode and with it invites numerous hackers both foreign and some close to home (Binghampton, NY) with crimes that include infecting computers with Bots, stealing data on over 200,000,000 occasions!  Defiantly worth a read.  Checkout the Network World Article by Michael Cooney  below:

Ransomware, malware and all manner of nefarious computer hacking tools allegedly available via Darkode

  Source: FBI, international law units smash infamous hacker bazaar Darkode | Network World