Malicious hackers often send phishing emails to inject malwares to computers, allowing them to spy on and even steal data from their victims but apparently, the practice isn’t limited to cybercriminals. Reports suggest that FBI also rely on this technique to aid its investigations.
Court documents have revealed that a Colorado judge had authorized the FBI to use a malware designed by the agency’s team of hackers to track “Mo”, purportedly an Iranian, who made threats to bomb universities and airports in United States last year.
Mo was hard to pin down, communicating only via email, video chat and an Internet-based phone service and, without a house to search or a telephone to tap, investigators resorted to a high-tech surveillance strategy that involved delivery of malicious software once the suspect opens his Yahoo email account. The objective of the software was to gather information about Mo including the sites he had visited and indicators that can provide details about the location of his computer.
This isn’t the first time that authorities reportedly used what the FBI refers to as “network investigative techniques” to track down suspected criminals. Marcus Thomas, a former employee of the FBI, said the agency can also secretly enable a laptop’s webcam but says that this kind of surveillance is only used in terrorism cases or in the most serious of criminal investigations.
FBI also utilizes a software that can produce a detailed breakdown of a computer’s configuration and installed applications and a tool that can be transmitted online as soon as somebody signs into an email address that has been flagged for investigation. The agency can also covertly download emails, documents and photos but it has to request permission from a federal magistrate to monitor a particular individual. The use of malware to track down Mo got the go signal but not all requests are granted permission by the court.
The high tech surveillance system does not work at all times either. In the case of Mo, FBI hackers successfully emailed the link that would install the tracking malware but the tool malfunctioned and the agency could only learn that the suspect was in Tehran..
