4 ms·
I find it fascinating that one can be intelligent enough to be able to do something like this but they just couldn’t put together a coherent enough email to act
by oxymoran 5y ago
I find it fascinating that one can be intelligent enough to be able to do something like this but they just couldn’t put together a coherent enough email to actually fool you, especially because they seem to have a decent enough command of English. The tone is waaaaaay off though.
- ac2u 5y agoPerhaps the human effort needed to see their goals through requires that they filter for only the targets that would fall for such a poorly constructed effort.
- rasz 5y agoThis could work if recipients were CEOs/CISOs, not actually technical people (ARIN IP range contacts = NOC? as someone above me found out)
- Zarel 5y agoThe big unanswered question there is: Why go through the effort of making the headers real, if you want to intentionally filter out the kind of people who would look at them?
- ac2u 5y agoWe're talking in hypotheticals of course, but the effort to make headers real isn't just to fool people who would inspect, but also to fool corporate spam filters and email clients that would display big bold warnings over such an email.
- Alex3917 5y agoIf you can send email from the FBI then you also have a get out of jail free card for any crime. Seems like a bad use of this access.
- enkid 5y agoI don't see how sending an email from the FBI gives you a get out of jail free card.
- curryst 5y agoProbably not a literal get out of jail free card, but it gives you a lot of options to impede the investigation. From what I can tell, investigations are comprised of a large network of loosely connected groups that need to coordinate to win. The game is to use it to interrupt communications between loosely affiliated parties in the investigation. You're not going to convince the director of the FBI to drop it, but you probably could wreak havoc on the investigation by sending emails allegedly from the FBI to the labs, local law enforcement, etc. Don't tell them to drop it, just redirect them to something less useful. "Oh, we don't need those reports right now, prioritize analyzing <something you know isn't helpful>". Try to get local PD to go knocking on doors or something that won't help, but isn't too obviously unhelpful. You could also try to make the various groups mad at each other to reduce cohesion. It's probably not going to keep you out of jail, but it buys you some time.
- toomanybeersies 5y agoSend an email under the guise of the FBI to the president, asking for immunity for yourself?
- hungryforcodes 5y agoPresident: "Hey FBI dudes -- is this email legit?" FBI: "LOL WTF!?" Probably not.
- lostlogin 5y agoMaybe this if how dubious characters have received presidential pardons over the years?
- Alex3917 5y agoIf the FBI offers you immunity in exchange for implicating yourself in a crime, then they can't retroactively retract that offer after you've already confessed. This is true even in cases where the defendant was improperly offered immunity. And emails from an organization's domain name are generally legally binding. (Obviously this isn't legal advice.)
- NaughtyShiba 5y agoJust because you are intelligent in one field doesn’t necessarily mean you are intelligent in others. I personally need to rewrite text 4-5 times for RFC/Proposal PRs. I would assume English isn’t their native language, but’s on line between good and correct.
- baby 5y agoThe author is probably still in school, and has no idea how bureaucracy talks.
- codezero 5y agoSeems like some people are happy to use their intelligence to troll Vinny Troia. To each their own, I say.