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The Seattle PD can plug a device they purchased into a USB port as well as anyone else. There have been various public and leaked catalogues of law enforcement

The Seattle PD can plug a device they purchased into a USB port as well as anyone else. There have been various public and leaked catalogues of law enforcement tools put online now, these abilities are commoditized and packaged in a user friendly manner. This is pretty old news at this point.

NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
Purchased from where? They probably couldn't find their asses with both hands, but if they could it'd cost several hundred thousand dollars, take 48 hours with the roads blocked off, and the scandal of them finding some soccer mom's ass instead wouldn't die down for 3 years. Do you think that they came up with this in their emergency war room, as they planned out the sneak attack on the Tor node, or was this a more general policy developed over the previous months and years and this was just one of the first times they got to practice it?
- freshhawk 11y ago
  > Purchased from where? Most famously, because they were recently hacked themselves, the Milan based company Hacking Team. The intercept has a good breakdown of their software manual here: https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/hacking-team/#manuals https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/hacking-team/#manuals There are many others out there, this cell phone related catalogue is really interesting: https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-government-gear-for-spying-on-your-cellphone/ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-go... Any company considered a "defense contractor" will probably offer tools along these lines. They are in high demand. Of course the FBI, Homeland security and the NSA have their own tools as well. And they share with local law enforcement (probably not the latest and greatest ones). > Do you think that they came up with this in their emergency war room, as they planned out the sneak attack on the Tor node, I don't really have any idea what the Seattle PD methods or procedures would be, but they knew what TOR was and tracked the traffic to his exit node. I doubt it was the same cops who did that part ... so how likely was it that this briefing didn't include anything like "Just plug the CriminalBuster(tm) box into the computer until the light turns green, then coordinate with Bob to get access to the information you want later. You can get things like X, Y and Z from the CriminalBuster. To requisition a unit fill out form TPS-01 and give it to John." The entire reason to commoditize these things is to make it easy to use within an inefficient bureaucracy that doesn't have a lot of tech training or a "war room". Just like they have done with phone taps or gps car trackers for years. > this was just one of the first times they got to practice it? Why assume this was the first time? It's standard practice for all sorts of infosec workers, journalists, etc to assume this was done to their laptop if it was out of their hands. You can literally download one of these and put it on a usb stick yourself (for your own personal use of course, anything else would be very illegal).
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
    > Any company considered a "defense contractor" will probably offer tools along these lines. They are in high demand. Can someone show me the Seattle PD budget that has in it those kinds of purchases? Can you show me where they'd at least hide it in the budget somehow? This isn't DOD black ops slush funds, after all. Maybe these defense contractors do it for free, out of the goodness of their hearts? I don't make the mistake of thinking that the government or its agencies are the good guys who would never do anything underhanded. But I feel pretty safe believing that they're A) incompetent and B) piss-poor strategists and C) not interested in anything but the current investigation. The idea that they've Jason Bourned his computer is absurd paranoid blather.
    - freshhawk 11y ago
      > The idea that they've Jason Bourned his computer is absurd paranoid blather. I think you have a miss-calibrated idea of how hard/technical/uncommon/expensive this is. This is the IT equivalent of collecting DNA, not Jason Bourne stuff. Funnily enough the annual National Technical Investigators Association conference is in Seattle this year. Tacoma PD has at least one Stingray. Tacoma. That's a few orders of magnitude more expensive and complex than a little usb drive. Want to see the FinFisher price list? https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/DREAMLAB_2011_FinFPric_en.html https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/DREAMLAB_2011_FinFPric_e... I wonder what the "1x Auto-Exec USB Dongle" or "10x Activated FinUSB Dongles" lines refer to? Why wonder, you can read the catalog. They have identified a number of western LEO's on that customer list, no American ones yet but FinFisher is just one company and there are FinFisher command and control servers in the US. Anyway, I'm responding just because I am interested in the subject and not because I think a dialogue is going to happen here and that's not the best use of my time.
      - NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
        > I think you have a miss-calibrated idea of how hard/technical/uncommon/expensive this is. This is the IT equivalent of collecting DNA, not Jason Bourne stuff. I think you have little experience with cops. It's surprising they can figure out shoe laces.

NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago

Purchased from where? They probably couldn't find their asses with both hands, but if they could it'd cost several hundred thousand dollars, take 48 hours with the roads blocked off, and the scandal of them finding some soccer mom's ass instead wouldn't die down for 3 years. Do you think that they came up with this in their emergency war room, as they planned out the sneak attack on the Tor node, or was this a more general policy developed over the previous months and years and this was just one of the first times they got to practice it?

freshhawk 11y ago
> Purchased from where? Most famously, because they were recently hacked themselves, the Milan based company Hacking Team. The intercept has a good breakdown of their software manual here: https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/hacking-team/#manuals https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/hacking-team/#manuals There are many others out there, this cell phone related catalogue is really interesting: https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-government-gear-for-spying-on-your-cellphone/ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-go... Any company considered a "defense contractor" will probably offer tools along these lines. They are in high demand. Of course the FBI, Homeland security and the NSA have their own tools as well. And they share with local law enforcement (probably not the latest and greatest ones). > Do you think that they came up with this in their emergency war room, as they planned out the sneak attack on the Tor node, I don't really have any idea what the Seattle PD methods or procedures would be, but they knew what TOR was and tracked the traffic to his exit node. I doubt it was the same cops who did that part ... so how likely was it that this briefing didn't include anything like "Just plug the CriminalBuster(tm) box into the computer until the light turns green, then coordinate with Bob to get access to the information you want later. You can get things like X, Y and Z from the CriminalBuster. To requisition a unit fill out form TPS-01 and give it to John." The entire reason to commoditize these things is to make it easy to use within an inefficient bureaucracy that doesn't have a lot of tech training or a "war room". Just like they have done with phone taps or gps car trackers for years. > this was just one of the first times they got to practice it? Why assume this was the first time? It's standard practice for all sorts of infosec workers, journalists, etc to assume this was done to their laptop if it was out of their hands. You can literally download one of these and put it on a usb stick yourself (for your own personal use of course, anything else would be very illegal).
- NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
  > Any company considered a "defense contractor" will probably offer tools along these lines. They are in high demand. Can someone show me the Seattle PD budget that has in it those kinds of purchases? Can you show me where they'd at least hide it in the budget somehow? This isn't DOD black ops slush funds, after all. Maybe these defense contractors do it for free, out of the goodness of their hearts? I don't make the mistake of thinking that the government or its agencies are the good guys who would never do anything underhanded. But I feel pretty safe believing that they're A) incompetent and B) piss-poor strategists and C) not interested in anything but the current investigation. The idea that they've Jason Bourned his computer is absurd paranoid blather.
  - freshhawk 11y ago
    > The idea that they've Jason Bourned his computer is absurd paranoid blather. I think you have a miss-calibrated idea of how hard/technical/uncommon/expensive this is. This is the IT equivalent of collecting DNA, not Jason Bourne stuff. Funnily enough the annual National Technical Investigators Association conference is in Seattle this year. Tacoma PD has at least one Stingray. Tacoma. That's a few orders of magnitude more expensive and complex than a little usb drive. Want to see the FinFisher price list? https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/DREAMLAB_2011_FinFPric_en.html https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/DREAMLAB_2011_FinFPric_e... I wonder what the "1x Auto-Exec USB Dongle" or "10x Activated FinUSB Dongles" lines refer to? Why wonder, you can read the catalog. They have identified a number of western LEO's on that customer list, no American ones yet but FinFisher is just one company and there are FinFisher command and control servers in the US. Anyway, I'm responding just because I am interested in the subject and not because I think a dialogue is going to happen here and that's not the best use of my time.
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago
      > I think you have a miss-calibrated idea of how hard/technical/uncommon/expensive this is. This is the IT equivalent of collecting DNA, not Jason Bourne stuff. I think you have little experience with cops. It's surprising they can figure out shoe laces.