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I once received this alert from google, a few months later had a run in with the FBI. I don't see why any non-Western countries would be interested in me, so y

by ryanlol 11y ago

I once received this alert from google, a few months later had a run in with the FBI. I don't see why any non-Western countries would be interested in me, so yeah.

JoshTriplett 11y ago
> I once received this alert from google, a few months later had a run in with the FBI. Sounds like quite a story; any details you can share?
- ryanlol 11y ago
  I received the alert around Dec 2012, big red bar at the top of my screen (which interestingly enough caused a reflected XSS vulnerability in gmail) just randomly popped up as I was eating dinner a few days before christmas. Didn't really think much of it, account logs showed no access from outside of my own IP addresses and analysing all the emails I had received in the past few months found nothing out of place. Leads me to believe (Well, hope.) that the attack was detected and blocked by google. About 8 months (had to double check that, since it sure felt like less) later I flew over to defcon and the FBI searched my hotel room, seizing my throwaway phone and laptop. On my way out of the country I was again stopped at JFK by a bunch of agents holding a grand jury subpoena. Ended up being asked a bunch of rather silly questions regarding some ORNL hack(and others) that I couldn't really answer. Wasn't arrested, got to spend an extra day in the states and flew out.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    Did you go back to the states afterwards?
    - ryanlol 11y ago
      Nope, and I don't think I'm going to be trying that any time soon.
  - joshmn 11y ago
    Your email address in your profile would lead me to believe you're Russian, but you speak very fluent and informal American English. Don't suppose you'd admit to being a Fin and having a name of Julius, would you? Curiosity, that's all.
    - ryanlol 11y ago
      Yep.
      - Jerry2 11y ago
        Using russian email server is smart: out of subpoena powers of all of the Western nations... and FSB, even if they were to spy on you, doesn't really give a damn unless you’re trying to undermine Russian Federation.
        ryanlol 11y ago
        And contacting yandex customer support is significantly easier than trying to get in touch with someone at google capable of unlocking my account.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        joshmn 11y ago
        Followed you briefly (news-wise). Fun fact: I once received a call about some credit card information being leaked, and was brought on to figure it out. I'm pretty sure you had something to do with it. Small, fun little world we live in. I was amazed to learn that you were so young. Hope you stay out of trouble and put your curious brain to good use. :) Don't forget your SOCKS.
  - scintill76 11y ago
    Can you elaborate on what the big red bar said? At least I'm assuming it had some message.
    - ryanlol 11y ago
      https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kaEkDHuMR-8/T85THToQyYI/AAAAAAAACQg/O0-Pi2OdUeY/s1600/Targeted+User+Warning.png https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kaEkDHuMR-8/T85THToQyYI/AAAAAAAAC... Looks like that, although I remembered it being more red.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - avn2109 11y ago
    >> "...the FBI searched my hotel room..." Interesting story. For completeness, how do you know it was the FBI that searched your room?
    - ryanlol 11y ago
      After asking them a couple of times they agreed to present their badges, and that's what the copy of the warrant said.
Diamons 11y ago
I think you should share your story. The more the people know, the better.
nness 11y ago
I wish I could find the reference, but I recall someone once saying that sites like Google or Yahoo will provide a really subtle "canary" to indicate that your account details may have been requested, through just requiring you to re-accept the terms of service agreement.
huntsman 11y ago
At Google when we have done these alerts we have not discriminated by country. The alerts only cover what we see with phishing and malware targeting by what we believe is nation state activity and has nothing to do with law enforcement requests or other legal processes.

by ryanlol 11y ago

I once received this alert from google, a few months later had a run in with the FBI. I don't see why any non-Western countries would be interested in me, so yeah.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

> I once received this alert from google, a few months later had a run in with the FBI. Sounds like quite a story; any details you can share?

ryanlol 11y ago
I received the alert around Dec 2012, big red bar at the top of my screen (which interestingly enough caused a reflected XSS vulnerability in gmail) just randomly popped up as I was eating dinner a few days before christmas. Didn't really think much of it, account logs showed no access from outside of my own IP addresses and analysing all the emails I had received in the past few months found nothing out of place. Leads me to believe (Well, hope.) that the attack was detected and blocked by google. About 8 months (had to double check that, since it sure felt like less) later I flew over to defcon and the FBI searched my hotel room, seizing my throwaway phone and laptop. On my way out of the country I was again stopped at JFK by a bunch of agents holding a grand jury subpoena. Ended up being asked a bunch of rather silly questions regarding some ORNL hack(and others) that I couldn't really answer. Wasn't arrested, got to spend an extra day in the states and flew out.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Did you go back to the states afterwards?
  - ryanlol 11y ago
    Nope, and I don't think I'm going to be trying that any time soon.
- joshmn 11y ago
  Your email address in your profile would lead me to believe you're Russian, but you speak very fluent and informal American English. Don't suppose you'd admit to being a Fin and having a name of Julius, would you? Curiosity, that's all.
  - ryanlol 11y ago
    Yep.
    - Jerry2 11y ago
      Using russian email server is smart: out of subpoena powers of all of the Western nations... and FSB, even if they were to spy on you, doesn't really give a damn unless you’re trying to undermine Russian Federation.
      - ryanlol 11y ago
        And contacting yandex customer support is significantly easier than trying to get in touch with someone at google capable of unlocking my account.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        joshmn 11y ago
        Followed you briefly (news-wise). Fun fact: I once received a call about some credit card information being leaked, and was brought on to figure it out. I'm pretty sure you had something to do with it. Small, fun little world we live in. I was amazed to learn that you were so young. Hope you stay out of trouble and put your curious brain to good use. :) Don't forget your SOCKS.
- scintill76 11y ago
  Can you elaborate on what the big red bar said? At least I'm assuming it had some message.
  - ryanlol 11y ago
    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kaEkDHuMR-8/T85THToQyYI/AAAAAAAACQg/O0-Pi2OdUeY/s1600/Targeted+User+Warning.png https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kaEkDHuMR-8/T85THToQyYI/AAAAAAAAC... Looks like that, although I remembered it being more red.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- avn2109 11y ago
  >> "...the FBI searched my hotel room..." Interesting story. For completeness, how do you know it was the FBI that searched your room?
  - ryanlol 11y ago
    After asking them a couple of times they agreed to present their badges, and that's what the copy of the warrant said.

Diamons 11y ago

I think you should share your story. The more the people know, the better.

nness 11y ago

I wish I could find the reference, but I recall someone once saying that sites like Google or Yahoo will provide a really subtle "canary" to indicate that your account details may have been requested, through just requiring you to re-accept the terms of service agreement.

huntsman 11y ago

At Google when we have done these alerts we have not discriminated by country. The alerts only cover what we see with phishing and malware targeting by what we believe is nation state activity and has nothing to do with law enforcement requests or other legal processes.