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Tag: FBI

  • Three Men Charged in Biggest Email Data Breach in History

    Three Men Charged in Biggest Email Data Breach in History

    An unsealed indictment reveals that the US Justice Department has charged three men in what it is calling “one of the largest reported data breaches in US history. It is, in fact, that biggest email data breach ever.

    “These men — operating from Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Canada — are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the Internet,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars by stealing over a billion email addresses from email service providers. This case again demonstrates the resolve of the Department of Justice to bring accused cyber hackers from overseas to face justice in the United States.”

    The indictment alleges that between February 2009 and June 2012, two Vietnamese citizens hacked at least eight email service providers. This netted them access to over a billion email addresses, from which they stole personal information. Twenty eight-year-old Viet Quoc Nguyen and 25-year-old Giang Hoang Vu allegedly made millions spamming “tens of millions” of email users.

    “In August 2012, the FBI, with the assistance of its legal attaches stationed abroad and in conjunction with Dutch law enforcement officials, executed a search warrant in the Netherlands that disrupted continued compromises of those companies while allowing U.S. authorities to advance its investigation,” explains the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson.

    Vu has already pleaded guilty to the charges. Nguyen is on the run. The third man in this specific indictment is Canadian David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, 33, who is accused of helping Nguyen and Vu launder their ill-gotten money. He’s currently sitting in jail awaiting trial.

    “This case reflects the cutting-edge problems posed by today’s cybercrime cases, where the hackers didn’t target just a single company; they infiltrated most of the country’s email distribution firms,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Horn. “And the scope of the intrusion is unnerving, in that the hackers didn’t stop after stealing the companies’ proprietary data—they then hijacked the companies’ own distribution platforms to send out bulk emails and reaped the profits from email traffic directed to specific websites.”

    “Our success in this case and other similar investigations is a result of our close work with our law enforcement partners,” said Special Agent in Charge Moore. “The Secret Service worked closely with the Department of Justice and the FBI to share information and resources that ultimately brought these cyber criminals to justice. This case demonstrates there is no such thing as anonymity for those engaging in data theft and fraudulent schemes.”

    Speaking of cyber crime, The US Government just created a brand new agency for organizing and disseminating information regarding cyber threats.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Anna Gunn: ‘Breaking Bad’ Star Joins Gary Sinise in ‘Criminal Minds’ Spinoff

    Anna Gunn of Breaking Bad fame is set to join former CSI: New York star Gary Sinise in a new Criminal Minds spinoff. The new show will focus on American citizens abroad, and like Criminal Minds, will feature a team of FBI psychological profilers.

    Known for her role on Breaking Bad as Walter White’s (played by Bryan Cranston) wife, Anna Gunn will play international lawyer Ally Lambert alongside Gary Sinise’s Jack Garrett, the profiling team’s leader and FBI 20-year veteran.

    The storyline for the spinoff will begin during an episode of Criminal Minds, set to film some time next month.

    Erica Messer, the showrunner for Criminal Minds, is writing the script for the spinoff. She is also executive-producing with Mark Gordon and Nick Pepper. The project, which is still in its development phase, will be produced by ABC Studios, CBS Television Studios and The Mark Gordon Company.

    Walking Dead star Tyler James Williams has reportedly also signed on for the spinoff.

    In addition to Breaking Bad, for which she won two Emmy Awards, Anna Gunn has appeared in The Mindy Project and Gracepoint.

    Are you a Criminal Minds fan? Did you watch Anna Gunn on Breaking Bad? Will you be checking her out–along with Gary Sinise–is this new, as yet unnamed spinoff?

  • WikiLeaks Blasts Google For Giving FBI Personal Data, Delaying Notification

    Google reportedly delayed by two and a half years disclosure to WikiLeaks that it gave emails and other data from three of its staff to the FBI. This occurred after a federal judge issued a warrant.

    Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is a lawyer for WikiLeaks, wrote a letter to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, telling him they are “astonished and disturbed that Google waited over two and a half years to notify its subscribers that a search warrant was issued for their records.”

    Read the full letter here.

    The three WikiLeaks staffers are Investigations editor Sarah Harrison, Section Editor Joseph Farrell and senior journalist and spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson. The warrant was related to charges of alleged conspiracy and espionage.

    “Importantly, the warrants reveal for the first time a clear list of the alleged offences the US government is trying to apply in its attempts to build a prosecution against Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staff. The offences add up to a total of 45 years of imprisonment,” WikiLeaks said in a press release. “The US government is claiming universal jurisdiction to apply the Espionage Act, general Conspiracy statute and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to journalists and publishers – a horrifying precedent for press freedoms around the world. Once an offence is alleged in relation to a journalist or their source, the whole media organisation, by the nature of its work flow, can be targeted as alleged ‘conspiracy’.”

    Here’s what it said specifically about Google:

    WikiLeaks’ legal team has written to Google expressing its dismay that Google failed to notify the warrants’ targets immediately. The failure to notify has prevented the three journalists from “protect[ing] their interests including their rights to privacy, association and freedom from illegal searches”. The “take everything” warrants are unconstitutionally broad and appear to violate the Privacy Protection Act so would have a good chance of being opposed; however, Google handed everything over before that was possible.

    Although Google claims that it was at some stage under a gag order from the US government, there is no indication that Google fought the gag and it is unlikely that the gag just happened to expire the day before Christmas. Similar gags for warrants against WikiLeaks journalists have been successfully fought by Twitter in much shorter time-frames.

    While WikiLeaks journalists, perhaps uniquely, do not use Google services for internal communications or for communicating with sources, the search warrants nonetheless represent a substantial invasion of their personal privacy and freedom. The information handed over to the US government included all email content, metadata, contacts, draft emails, deleted emails and IP addresses connected to the accounts. Google redacted the search warrants before sending them to WikiLeaks staff.

    The Guardian shares comment from Google:

    Google told the Guardian it does not talk about individual cases, to “help protect all our users”. A spokesperson for the company said: “We follow the law like any other company.

    “When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying. And if it doesn’t we can object or ask that the request is narrowed. We have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users.”

    Assange said, “WikiLeaks has out endured everything the Obama administration has thrown at us and we will out endure these latest ‘offences’ too…’I call on president Obama to do the right thing and call off his dogs–for his own sake. President Obama is set to go down in history as the president who brought more bogus ‘espionage’ cases against the press than all previous presidents combined.”

    WikiLeaks also wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. This requests further details on the investigation.

    Image via Google

  • Jessica Chambers: Is Social Media Helping or Harming Case?

    Jessica Chambers may not be with us anymore. Her funeral is over; her friends are trying to find their way back to their normal lives, even with heavy hearts. But the case is far from over.

    Jessica Chambers — for those of you who haven’t heard — was burned alive by her own car in a rural Mississippi area. When paramedics found her, she was still alive, still burning. She was flown to a Memphis hospital and died later.

    Local police in Panola County, Mississippi at first said that they didn’t have much to go on.

    “There’s just not a lot of street talk out there about who may or may not have done this,” the District attorney on the case said. Well, there’s plenty of street talk now. The question is whether all of it — or even any of it — is useful to police.

    A lot of the investigation initially centered around gas station security camera footage showing Jessica Chambers not long before the murder. Police reports indicate that Jessica was doused with gasoline before being set on fire. The hope was that the security camera at the only gas station in the area might have caught something.

    Apparently police did not get their hands on the footage before reporters did. When reporters released pieces of the video, i was apparent thaty they did not have the source tape, but had shot video of the monitor playing the tape. Different news outlets showed different segments of footage, from different angles.

    Some amateur sleuths started comparing these pieces, noticing persons who were at the station around the same time as Jessica. But others went another route. Persons claiming association with the hacktivist group Anonymous started looking at potential gang activity angles and posting what they found to Twitter. Using techniques most people don’t know about and that law enforcement is forbidden from using, they found what they claimed were connections between Jessica, local gangs, and the owner of the gas station at the center of it all.

    Anonymous takes credit for getting the FBI involved in the first place, by virtue of the alleged gang activity they uncovered in the area.

    Anonymous claimed that a man named Ali Alsanai whose family owns the gas station, was involved with local gangs. They claimed that his gas station is a hub of gang activity. And they claimed that those gangs had affiliations that stretched not only into other states, but into the local police department, as well.

    This line of “investigation” led to Ali Alsanai being viewed by some in the public as a suspect. This caused a lot of upset for Alsanai and his friends.

    Police have cleared Alsanai, but others say that it was never a question of whether he lit the match that killed Jessica. It was about whether he knows who did it, and perhaps even altered security camera footage.

    Beau Eldon’s Twitter account has been deleted since these tweets were posted.

    While Jessica’s family and friends grieved and set up Facebook pages in her memory, seeking justice for her murder, others began to question the involvement of those in charge of the investigation, and even some of Jessica’s own family.

    Eventually, the FBI got involved in the case, and still are. They vow not to leave until Jessica’s murderer or murderers are caught. Anonymous vows to expose the width and breadth of the area gang activity and purported law enforcement involvement in it. They say their methods are actually helping law enforcement, because the Feds don’t need a warrant to go after something that gets exposed on social media.

    Jessica’s sister Amanda Prince said that she thinks some of the theorizing done by people searching online for clues can do more harm than good.

    “You can’t just go by this rumor that he did, she did, you did it, and he did it. I want them to know, exactly, I want them to get all their evidence,” she said.

    But the atmosphere in Panola County has changed, according to news reports. The lack of street talk is no longer a problem.

  • FBI: North Korea Responsible for Sony Hack

    FBI: North Korea Responsible for Sony Hack

    According to the FBI the November hack of Sony Pictures, which led to the leak of tons of company data as well as influenced the company’s recent decision to yank the film The Interview from theaters, was the work of North Korea.

    From the FBI:

    As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions. While the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information, our conclusion is based, in part, on the following:

    – Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.

    – The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.

    – Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.

    The FBI says this is deeply troubling.

    “We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there. Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States. Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart. North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior. The FBI takes seriously any attempt – whether through cyber-enabled means, threats of violence, or otherwise—to undermine the economic and social prosperity of our citizens.”

    Though the FBI doesn’t give us any information on its next move, we do expect President Obama will speak on the issue today.

    Image via The Interview, Facebook

  • Jessica Chambers: Anonymous Goes After Gang Money; Gas Station Employee Cleared

    When someone set Jessica Chambers on fire in Panola County, Mississippi, they couldn’t have known how much would get scorched before it was all over. A country cries out for justice for the teen who was burning alive when paramedics found her, but died later before identifying her attacker.

    In the days since the brutal murder of Jessica Chambers hit the news, the public has watched local officials muddle their way through an investigation that seemed to go nowhere.

    “There’s just not a lot of street talk out there about who may or may not have done this,” the District attorney on the case said. “We feel like somebody out there has heard something. In all the years I have done this, this is an absolutely horrendous, horrendous case.”

    Then the hacktivist group Anonymous got on the case. Suspicions of local gang involvement were laid out by individuals who did not ned to wait for warrants before grabbing clues. A trail of possibilities was laid out on Twitter for the world to see. The Anonymous operation was initially called “OperationJessicaC.”

    Soon, the FBI came to town and took over the investigation. Anonymous claimed the Feds were there in response to their own emails to them, laying out clues. The name of the Twitter account Anonymous used was changed to “OperationJessicaComplete.”

    Anonymous changed the focus of their operation to hit a particular gang structure called “Gangster Disciples.” The operation name changed again to “JessicasLight.”

    The Anonymous investigation has turned up what appears to be a gang affiliation structure that they promise to compile and release. They have also been grabbing screenshots from social media accounts of people they claim are gang members possibly involved in Jessica Chambers’ murder. Some of these accounts have been shut down recently. But, as Anonymous points out, you can’t really get rid of anything once it’s been posted.

    In this Facebook post, a particularly disturbing notion is floated:

    “Somebody needs to rape all they kids in front of them then set them on fire there learn then white bitches need to be dead”

    One of the people caught at the heart of the fracas is Ali Alsanai. Jessica Chambers’ last known whereabouts before being found burning was at a gas station that Alsanai worked at and is owned by his family. Anonymous claims that this gas station is a hub of gang activity. Some amateur sleuths poked around in security camera footage from the gas station and raised questions about sections of video that seemed to be missing.

    Some accused Alsanai of hiding what he knows about gang activity at the gas station.

    Alsanai has been cleared as a primary suspect, his whereabouts accounted for at the time of the Chambers attack. Still Alsanai has had to deal with a lot of heat on social media. On his own Facebook page, Alsanai’s friends are celebrating his being cleared of the murder.

    Post by Morgan Rowlison.

    Alsanai is keeping his head up.

    Post by Ali Alsanai.
  • Leaked Photos 2014: FBI Is Involved

    Leaked Photos 2014: FBI Is Involved

    The recent nude photo scandal involving thousands of photos allegedly belonging to top Hollywood celebrities has drawn the attention of the FBI.

    Starlets including Jennifer Lawrence, Victoria Justice, Kate Upton, and even Ariana Grande (who denies that the photos are of her), found their accounts hacked and private images are now being shared across the internet.

    The situation has led to a federal investigation as the authorities begin working to hunt down the individual or individuals responsible for this gross invasion of privacy.

    While it’s still uncertain exactly how the hacker or hackers gained access to so many celebrity photos, early consensus is that Apple’s iCloud service suffered a massive security breach which made the leak possible.

    Apple has since responded to the blame by saying that the company will be doing a thorough investigation into the matter.

    The total number of famous women believed to be affected by the hack is speculated to reach nearly 100 in all.

    It’s likely that this leak was years in the making as one victim, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, said that her “photos were deleted a long time ago”.

    This suggests that the person or persons responsible have been meticulously gathering the private photos and videos of these women for a long time. Something that is, as Winstead puts it, “creepy”.

    This isn’t the first time that the FBI has launched a major investigation to bring a celebrity nude hacker to justice.

    They captured the man responsible for the Scarlett Johannson and Christina Aguilera leaks. A court later sentenced him to ten years in prison.

    Although the circumstances are different, the serious nature of this hack and the amount of famous victims involved strongly suggests that there can and will be serious legal ramifications for those involved should federal authorities identify them.

    Perhaps a serious legal and financial penalty could serve to warn hackers that there are serious real world consequences for harmful and illegal online activities.

  • Man Charged in Abigail Hernandez Disappearance

    A 34-year-old New Hampshire man was charged Monday for the kidnapping of 15-year-old Abigail “Abby” Hernandez over nine months ago.

    Authorities believe that Nathaniel Kibby abducted Hernandez on October 9, as she left Kennett High School in Conway. Kibby was arrested in Gorman without incident, roughly 30 miles north of where Hernandez lives.

    Hernandez returned home out of the blue on July 20, and at that time, the FBI issued a statement – “We’re just happy to see her home safe and sound, but we still want to understand how this came about and learn more about the circumstance.”

    Details are still vague concerning Hernandez’ confinement, but sources close to the case revealed that Kibby held the teen in a storage container on his trailer park lot. Kibby was in court today and was so far charged with felony kidnapping. His bail was set at $1 million, cash only.

    Kibby has an extensive rap sheet, and was charged with criminal trespassing and assault in March. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young refused to unseal affidavits outlining the current case against Kibby, to the dismay of public defender Jesse Friedman. Young commented, “There are searches being conducted at the defendant’s house,” and explained that the investigation against Kibby is still in a preliminary stage.

    Abigail’s mother, Zenya Hernandez, revealed that when her daughter returned home, she was gaunt and pale, and had “a look in her eyes I’ve never, ever seen before. And that’s something that’s haunting me, and I think will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

    FBI Agent Kieran Ramsey remarked, “Her courage, her resolve to return home in the way she did, I think, speaks for itself.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Skylar Neese Stabbed by ‘Best Friends’

    On July 6, 2012, 16-year-old Star City, West Virginia high school student Skylar Neese was stabbed to death by best friends Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf.

    After Neese went missing, authorities initially concluded that the teen had likely overdosed on heroin at a party, people around her panicked, and her body was hidden. Though, after a six month investigation, Shoaf confessed to murdering Neese, along with Eddy. The admitted motive was plainly that the two “just didn’t like her.”

    At 12:31 a.m. on July 6, 2012, surveillance video from the apartment complex Neese lived at with her parents showed that the teen left the building through her bedroom window. Neese’s father David noted that the window was left open and that the cellphone charger was left behind, which was indicative of a planned return.

    When Neese failed to come home, authorities at first classified the teen as a runaway. The FBI got involved in the search for Neese in September, 2012, but were unable to solve the mystery of the teen’s disappearance.

    The day after the murder, Eddy helped Skylar Neese’s parents canvass the neighborhood looking for Skylar, while Shoaf left for Catholic summer camp for two weeks. In December, 2012, Shoaf had a nervous breakdown and was committed to a local psychiatric hospital, barring her from any contact with Eddy.

    Upon her discharge in early January, Shoaf confessed to her attorney and authorities that she and Eddy stabbed Skylar Neese to death. Shoaf led police to Neese’s body, was was located in Wayne Township, Pennsylvania, roughly 30 miles from Neese’s apartment. Shoaf wore a wire during a meeting with Eddy, though Eddy didn’t incriminate herself.

    State Police Corp. Ronnie Gaskin asked Shoaf why they killed Skylar, and her only answer was, “We just didn’t like her.”

    Rachel Shoaf was found guilty of second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in February. Shelia Eddy struck a deal with prosecutors, and plead guilty to first degree murder with mercy, and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in 15 years.

    Here is an extended clip of Shoaf’s sentencing:

    The murder prompted an Amber Alert amendment called “Skylar’s Law,” and West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed the legislation into law in May, 2013. Skylar’s Law calls for immediate public announcements when any child is reported missing and in danger, regardless of whether the child is believed to have been kidnapped.

    One of Neese’s final tweets:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Insane Clown Posse Sues the FBI: Loncar & Associates Provides Insight

    Commissioned News Story: (Source: Loncar & Associates)

    Whenever anyone from the entertainment industry gets involved with a legal dispute, there is an uproar of public attention surrounding the case. A recent case involving the Insane Clown Posse and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is no exception.

    Earlier this year, Insane Clown Posse filed a lawsuit against the FBI in response to the latter’s labeling of ICP fans, called “Juggalos,” as a gang. The case is now back in the news, as the Department of Justice, representing the FBI, has asked a Detroit-area federal judge to dismiss the suit.

    Longtime attorney Brian Loncar is the founder of the Dallas, Texas-based firm Loncar & Associates. Since 1988, Loncar & Associates has grown to include offices in eight other cities, and represents over 7,000 clients each year. Given this wealth of experience, Loncar has certainly witnessed his fair share of high-profile cases. When asked about the reason for the public attention surrounding this particular case, he has this to say: “Any time a public figure or celebrity gets involved with a legal dispute, the public’s finger is going to be on the pulse of the story.”

    “What’s interesting about this dispute is that there’s a very large following behind the Insane Clown Posse, and all of these people identify themselves so much with these public figures – it would be difficult to condemn all of them,” Loncar adds.

    The whole debacle started when the FBI included Juggalos in its 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment report on emerging trends. According to the report, “The Juggalos, a loosely-organized hybrid gang, are rapidly expanding into many US communities. Although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalo sub-sets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence. Law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets, according to NGIC reporting.”

    “Most crimes committed by Juggalos are sporadic, disorganized, individualistic, and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft, and vandalism,” the report continued. “However, open source reporting suggests that a small number of Juggalos are forming more organized subsets and engaging in more gang-like criminal activity, such as felony assaults, thefts, robberies, and drug sales. Social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo sub-culture to communicate and expand.”

    Outraged by this allegation, ICP fired back in its suit, “Juggalos are a ‘family’ of people who love and help one another, enjoy one another’s company, and bond over the music and a philosophy of life. Organized crime is by no means part of the Juggalo culture.”

    The suit was filed by both members of ICP along with four Juggalos. One of them claims to have tried to enlist in the army, but faced rejection because of a Juggalo tattoo. Another claims to have been detained by police three separate times because of tattoos and other Juggalo gear.

    “Among the supporters of almost any group — whether it be a band, sports team, university, political organization or religion — there will be some people who violate the law. Inevitably, some will do so while sporting the group’s logos or symbols,” the filing said. “However, it is wrong to designate the entire group of supporters as a criminal gang based on the acts of a few. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened here.”

    “Many people view Juggalos as nonconformists because of their musical tastes, their practice of painting their faces to look like clowns, and the distinctive Juggalo symbols — including the ‘hatchetman’ logo that they often display on their clothing, jewelry, body art and bumper stickers,” it continued. “Yet when Juggalos come together at concerts or their annual week-long gathering every summer, they know that they are in a community where all people are equal and where they will be accepted and respected for who they are.”

    When news of the suit first emerged, many on the Internet sided with the rap group and its fans, and with the topic in the headlines again, the vocal outpouring is back.

    “The FBI should not have the authority to arbitrarily place people under a microscope,” one Vice reader commented.

    “I am a stay at home dad to two wonderful children,” a self-proclaimed Juggalo commented on Rolling Stone’s website. “I work very hard every day to give my kids the life they deserve. I have been listening to Juggalo music for many years now. For u [sic] to say I am affiliated with any gang is utterly offensive.”

    Meanwhile, lawyer and blogger Jeff Engstrom, who writes under the pseudonym Juggalo Law, told The New York Times that the FBI’s actions were “laughably off base” and “the equivalent of placing Phish fans on a terrorist watch list.”

    It’s clear that that ICP and the Juggalos have many supporters, even outside of the group’s immediate circle of fans. As Brian Loncar of Loncar & Associates points out, legal tests of personal freedoms are always hot button issues – but when celebrities are involved, you can expect just about everybody to have an opinion.

    Image via YouTube

  • FBI: Driverless Cars Might Be Good for Bad People

    FBI: Driverless Cars Might Be Good for Bad People

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Strategic Issues Group is worried about the possible criminal uses of all these self-driving cars that folks like Google are trying to get on our roadways.

    The Guardian obtained an internal FBI report, which offers up some insight into how the country’s top investigative body feels about all this autonomy. From The Guardian:

    In a section called Multitasking, the report notes that “bad actors will be able to conduct tasks that require use of both hands or taking one’s eyes off the road which would be impossible today.”

    Send a text? Change the song on Spotify? The FBI is presumably worried about these “bad actors” doing things that are hard to do when focusing on not crashing the car – like shooting (accurately) at pursuant cops.

    Again, from the report:

    The report, written by agents in the Strategic Issues Group within the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence , says, “Autonomy … will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today.”

    A little vague – thousand-pound boxes of metal and glass are already potentially lethal weapons. But it’s not a huge leap to wonder about even more sinister uses for an autonomous vehicle. One the comes to mind, of course, is allowing suicide bombings to, well, just be bombings.

    It’s not all doom and gloom from the report, however. The FBI rightly acknowledges that “the risk that distraction or poor judgement leading to collision that stems from manual operation would be substantially reduced.”

    They also speculate on some potential uses for the good guys – like better suspect tracking through inconspicuousness. It sure would be easier to sic a driverless car on a criminal’s tail. Would they even notice? I’d imagine that driverless cars would have to become pretty commonplace before people would stop caring about the ghost mobiles following them.

    Image via Google Self-Driving Car Project, YouTube

  • East Peoria Shooting: Off-Duty FBI Agent’s Heroism

    East Peoria Police are praising an unnamed, off-duty FBI agent who shot and killed a man after he opened fire in an East Peoria bar Saturday night, killing three.

    “We hate to think of what the possibilities could have been had the agent not been there and not been able to take the action that he did.” said the East Peoria Police Chief Dick Ganschow. “He was helping to secure the scene when our officers first arrived. And they are familiar with him.”

    It is not completely known what sparked the shooting at the Fifth Quarter bar in Peoria, Illinois, although speculation rests on a domestic dispute.

    “We believe it was an domestic issue involving an ex-husband and an ex-wife and the boyfriend of the ex-wife,” said Ganschow. “After just a brief moment inside the bar, he pulled out a weapon and shot a female and a male.”

    The bar was packed Saturday with more than 100 people attending a class reunion at the bar when 40-year-old Jason Moore walked into the bar and shot his ex-wife, Lori Moore, and her boyfriend, Lance Griffel.

    “I think he felt it was a broken marriage gone terribly wrong in this subject’s mind,” said the police chief of the shooter.

    Ganschow says there are many questions still left unanswered.

    “There’s an element we want to know and that is why this happened and what if anything could have been done to prevent this from happening,” he said.

    Fifth Quarter is currently closed while state officials and the FBI help East Peoria Police investigate. It is unclear when the sports bar will reopen.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • People Pointing Lasers at Airplanes Is Such a Problem That the FBI Is Offering a $10,000 Reward for Info

    Who knew that so many people were pointing lasers at airplanes?

    Since 2012, pointing lasers at airplanes (or as the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls it “lasing aircraft”) is a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

    And since about four months ago, the FBI has been rewarding people for providing information on any known instances of intentional laser pointing.

    Starting now, the FBI is taking that pilot program nationwide.

    “Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a serious matter and a violation of federal law, said Joe Campbell, assistant director of our Criminal Investigative Division. “The public awareness campaign we launched in February has been effective in reducing the number of incidents, and our hope in expanding the program is that people will think twice about illegally using these devices.”

    How effective? Well, pretty. When the FBI began this pay-to-report program, they offered it in cities where laser strikes against aircraft were particularly prevalent. This included cities like Chicago, Houston, New York City, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Now, according to the FBI, there has been a 19 percent decrease in reported “laser strikes” in those areas.

    It might shock you to learn that a laser beam from your little keychain laser pointer can reach more than a mile, and in severe cases can enter a plane’s cockpit and temporarily blind the pilots. In 2013, there were a reported 3,960 laser strikes against aircraft. The FBI says that these laser strikes have been described as “a camera going off in a dark room.” You can see why this is a problem.

    “We want to encourage people to come forward when they see someone committing this crime, which could have terrible consequences for pilots and their passengers,” said federal air marshal George Johnson.

    To claim that reward (which can be as much as $10,000), the info you provide the FBI must lead to an arrest.

    The FBI’s slogan for the campaign says “Here’s a pointer: don’t let a prank lead to prison.”

    Image via FBI, YouTube

  • Megan Boone: ‘Blacklist’ Season Finale “Full Blown Thriller”

    Megan Boone described Monday night’s season finale of The Blacklist as a “full blown thriller.”

    “It’s kind of keeping with what we’ve done all season,” she told reporters about the NBC drama’s season finale during a press event last week. “I don’t think we’d be doing it justice if we didn’t make it a full-blown thriller.”

    And it definitely lived up to the hype. Megan Boone was her typical deliberate self in her Lizzie Keen persona as she learned one fellow agent was dead and another near death. She broke once during the finale when Tom Keen (played by Ryan Eggold) was shot by none other than Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington himself. Her memories of better times momentarily flooded her sensible side. Tom survived just long enough to whisper something vital into Lizzie’s ear.

    Reddington admitted early on in Monday night’s episode while he was imprisoned that “the girl” who, of course, everyone knew to be Agent Keen even before he divulged as much, was ‘worth it.’

    Megan Boone would no doubt say that her role as Elizabeth Keen was well worth it during this amazing season of The Blacklist as well.

    “What I really like about the finale is it leaves you in a place where you get a sense of where we’re going for season 2,” she said during her interview. “It’s exciting and it’s a new direction.”

    That direction was rather well defined as the season finale neared its end on Monday night. Lizzie asked Red if what Tom told her–that her real father was still alive–was true. Even though Red said no, a glimpse at his burned and scarred torso as he tended a bullet wound at the show’s close says otherwise.

    Megan Boone is one of the high points of The Blacklist. Fans are no doubt counting the weeks until they see her on TV once again in her role as Lizzie Keen.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘The Blacklist’ Season Finale: Did It Live Up to the Hype?

    The Blacklist season finale aired on Monday night with a dead FBI agent, the noted identity of a man who calls himself Berlin, and an even stronger feeling that Agent Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone) is Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington’s (James Spader) daughter–even though he tells her that her father is dead. The season ended with the show being the most watched new series in prime time–not a bad way to go out, and a positive note to offset the blood bath the ensued during the finale.

    Meera, played by Parminder Nagra, was killed shortly after the finale began. Her throat was slit in a night club and Lizzie Keen arrived too late to save her. Director Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) was the next to fall–being strangled in his car. His name, too, is scratched off Berlin’s list of targets, but he lingers in a hospital on life support.

    Tom Keen, played by Ryan Eggold, was also a casualty on The Blacklist season finale. Shot by Red, he didn’t go down without a fight–and not without whispering in Lizzie’s ear that her father is alive.

    Megan Boone talked with Jimmy Fallon prior to the airing of The Blacklist season finale, and each did their best not to spoil the outcome.

    Later in the show Lizzie confronts Red about killing her ‘father’ Sam–the man who took her in and raised her as his own when her own father was killed in a fire from which she was saved. Sam was in a hospital dying when Red snuffed him out. He told Lizzie it was an act of compassion–that her father was ill and wanted to die, and that he loved her father as his dear friend.

    Shortly before Monday night’s finale ends, Lizzie and Red chat once again–this time about what Tom Keen told her before he died. Red assures her that her father died in that fire. A moment later, however, as Reddington tends to a bullet wound, it is plain to see that his body is horrifically scarred–by what one can only assume are burns.

    Do you think The Blacklist season finale lived up to the hype created in the weeks before its airing? The Blacklist returns in the fall, and then in 2015 gets that coveted post-Super Bowl slot.

    Will you be tuning in to see the saga continue?

    Image via YouTube

  • Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Actor, Dies at 95

    Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Actor, Dies at 95

    Actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., best known for his roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I., passed away at his ranch in Southern California on Friday. He was 95.

    In a statement, the actor’s daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and son Efrem Zimbalist III said, “We are heartbroken to announce the passing into peace of our beloved father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., today at his Solvang ranch. He actively enjoyed his life to the last day, showering love on his extended family, playing golf and visiting with close friends.”

    Zimbalist Jr. was born on November 30, 1918 in New York City to Russian-born violinist Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. and Romanian-born operatic soprano Alma Gluck. The actor attended Yale University in the late 1930’s and then served five years in the United States Army during World War II. He received a Purple Heart for a leg wound sustained during the battle of Hürtgen Forest. A year later, Zimbalist returned to New York and made his Broadway acting debut in The Rugged Path, starring Spencer Tracy.

    Zimbalist’s stint on Broadway segued into a career in Hollywood, and the actor signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1956. His first lead role came in 1958 as detective Stuart “Stu” Bailey in the popular police procedural 77 Sunset Strip, which ran until 1964. In 1959, Zimbalist garnered the Golden Globe for “Most Promising Newcomer – Male”.

    Here is a clip of the opening credits of 77 Sunset Strip:

    Zimbalist was likely best known for his starring role as Inspector Lewis Erskine on The F.B.I., which ran from 1965 to 1974.

    Zimbalist maintained a strong personal relationship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover while the show was in production. Hoover demanded technical accuracy for the series, and that FBI agents be portrayed in the best possible light. Actors who portrayed agents also had to pass a background check, and Zimbalist himself spent a week at the FBI academy at Quantico, Virginia before production of the series began. Hoover later designated Zimbalist as the image for actual FBI agents to model their personal appearances after.

    Fellow actors took to Twitter to offer their condolences:

    In addition to son Efrem and daughter Stephanie, Zimbalist is survived by four grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • 1957 Murder Cold Case Appealed by Lifer

    1957 Murder Cold Case Appealed by Lifer

    In 2012, former police officer Jack McCullough was convicted of the 1957 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph, a case that ran cold for almost 60 years. Now an Illinois court is considering an appeal filed by McCullough, whose lawyers claim that an eye-witness to 1957 events was having a “romantic notion.”

    A key witness of the crime was Ridulph’s childhood friend Kathy Sigman Chapman, who is now in her sixties. Chapman claimed she had seen McCullough, then a teenager, giving Ridulph a piggyback ride in Sycamore, Illinois before she disappeared. In a 72-page appeal, McCullough’s lawyers contest that Chapman’s memories of Ridulph’s vanishing were so deeply ingrained into her mind that she could have mistakenly identified McCullough five decades later. The case was once the oldest unsolved murder in the United States, before McCullough, formerly John Tessier, was arrested in July, 2011.

    Chapman testified during the trial that on December 3, 1957, a teenager who called himself Johnny had approached her and Ridulph. Chapman went home briefly to get mittens, and upon her return both Johnny and Maria were missing. Ridulph’s body was found the following spring roughly 120 miles away. The case received national attention, and the FBI became involved under J. Edgar Hoover.

    Here is a 48 Hours documentary on the case:

    The case was reopened decades later, after Janet Tessier, McCullough’s half sister, contacted Illinois State Police. Janet Tessier had been a caretaker of McCullough’s biological mother Eileen Tessier, who had been dying of cancer. On her deathbed, Tessier’s mother confessed that McCullough murdered Ridulph. McCullough was then arrested at a retirement community in Seattle where he’d lived and worked.

    Prosecutors said McCullough, now 74, choked Ridulph with a wire and stabbed her, and he was found guilty. Though, McCollough’s lawyers have testified that Eileen Tessier, who was in the end stages of cancer, was sedated, “emotionally disturbed,” sometimes “basically comatose” and at other times “pleasantly confused.”

    McCollough’s appeal states that by allowing prosecutors to introduce “irrelevant, but highly prejudicial evidence, no rational trier of fact would have found the defendant guilty.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Courthouse Shooting in Salt Lake City, Utah Ends in Death

    A defendant in a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah died after a U.S. marshal shot him today. The shooting occurred early this morning, and the story has been developing throughout the day.

    Initially information regarding the shooting was not being released. Police had been called at 9:45 in the morning. U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch told the Associated Press that the shooting occurred in a a gang-related trial in U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell’s courtroom.

    No other details were released. No information on victims or arrests or anything.

    The press and public were barred from entering the courthouse. Reporters began tweeting the limited information they had. Eye witnesses claimed they saw someone carried out of the building on a stretcher.

    That someone was defendant Siale Angilau. The 25 year old Angilau, also known as “C-Down”, decided to lunge at a witness with a pen in hand. A U.S. Marshall took action immediately, shooting the alleged gang member several times in front of the entire court.

    “It was kind of traumatizing,” Eye-witness Sara Jacobson told the Associated Press. Jacobson was in the court to support her grandmother who was scheduled to testify against Angilau. Prosecutors say Angilau was a member of the Tongan Crips, and with the assistance of his fellow gang members, he robbed convenience stores in the Salt Lake City Area from 2002 to 2007.

    The FBI investigated the incident and found that “during the trial this morning the defendant went after, engaged the witness stand, and when he engaged the witness at the witness stand, he was shot by the U.S. Marshals Service.” USA Today quoted FBI spokesman Mark Dressen saying, “from what I understand, the defendant may have grabbed a pen or a pencil and charged the witness stand at that time.”

    Judge Campell declared a mistrial stating “the court has met with the jury and and observed that most of the jury members are visibly shaken and upset by this episode. The court finds that this occurrence in the courtroom would so prejudice Mr. Angilau as to deprive him of a fair trial.”

    Image via YouPoliticsNews, YouTube

  • Alabama Man Sentenced in KKK Murder-For-Hire Plot

    An Alabama man was sentenced today in federal court on charges stemming from a murder-for-hire plot. The man, Allen Wayne Densen Morgan, was found guilty last fall for attempting to hire Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members to murder his neighbor. The 29-year-old Morgan has been sentenced to six years in prison.

    “Mr. Morgan detailed his calculated desire to end his neighbor’s life through the most brutal and heinous means,” said Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. “Today’s sentence reinforces that vigilantism is not acceptable in our society and we will prosecute that crime.”

    Morgan confessed that in August 2013 he hired men who he thought were members of the KKK to torture and murder his Munford, Alabama neighbor, a black man who Morgan believed had raped his wife. Morgan’s guilty plea states that in late August he spoke with a self-described KKK member over the phone to arrange the murder.

    The would-be KKK member that Morgan spoke with was an undercover FBI agent. During the phone call Morgan bragged about firing gunshots toward his neighbor and described his neighbor using a racial slur. Morgan arranged over the phone to later meet at an Oxford, Alabama motel to discuss payment for the murder. He later met with undercover FBI agents and offered a watch, a necklace, and a gun as payment.

    During the phone call Morgan also described in gruesome detail how he wanted his neighbor to be murdered. Morgan requested that his neighbor be “hung from a tree like a deer and gutted.” He also suggested that his neighbor should have body parts cut off during a “slow, painful death.”

    “The defendant attempted to have his neighbor tortured and murdered by the KKK,” said Jocelyn Samuels, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. “Today’s sentence demonstrates that the Justice Department will continue to aggressively prosecute those who act on their racial hatred by seeking to inflict such acts of violence on others.”

  • American Airlines Reports Teen’s Terroristic Tweet

    There are few things in this world that are quite as annoying as spoiled teenagers attempting to troll about non-laughing matters.

    No matter how hard these clueless youngsters try, the reality of terrorism in a post-9/11 world is never going to be funny to anyone with any kind of sense. Especially when the company you choose to send your threat to is none other than American Airlines.

    Today’s fail comes courtesy of a teenage girl named Sarah aka @QueenDemetriax_.

    For reasons that are still hard to fathom, young Sarah thought it was a good idea to tweet the following threat to the American Airlines Twitter account on Sunday morning:

    Being a 14-year-old sometimes means being unable to fully appreciate the serious nature of one’s disturbing actions:

    Of course things could stop being funny immediately depending on where this person lives. Terrorist threats, even if fake, can get you in serious trouble. She may find herself in jail or facing a heavy fine.

    There’s also the fact that this person will go viral for all the wrong reasons: Making a terrorist threat against American Airlines and being reported to the FBI.

    Her tweet and the consequences are absolutely documented. Forever.

    Gone are the days you could do something stupid as a kid and no one would find out.

    When she applies to a college and they do a thorough background check, this will most likely pop up during their search.

    When she applies for a job in ten years and competition is particularly fierce this could be what costs her.

    While we can all sit back and shake our heads at the folly of youth, it is a sad reminder how clueless a generation of kids are about the permanent nature of information on social media. I suspect this teen is in for a rather rude awakening.

    Speaking of which, I’m sure her parents are going to be very amused when they get wind of this.

    …Good luck, Sarah!

    Image via samir mezrahi, Twitter

  • FBI Herbalife Investigation: What’s Going On?

    According to reports, weight loss and nutrition company Herbalife Ltd. is at the center of a federal investigation. Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Justice are alleged to be looking into the business practices of the organization.

    The news, which was first reported by the Financial Times, led to a fourteen percent drop in Herbalife’s stock prices.

    The FBI is being fairly tight-lipped in the matter. Spokespersons for the agency will not confirm or deny that an investigation of Herbalife is taking place. It is known that there have been no charges of any kind filed at this time.

    Sources close to the ongoing FBI probe have not been willing to give many details beyond the fact that a investigation of the Los Angeles, California based company has been occurring for some time.

    Reuters reported that former Herbalife distributors had been contacted by the FBI with regard to the company’s business practices. This includes the method in which new members are brought into Herbalife.

    Former distributors are also said to have handed over Herbalife documents to federal investigators.

    What’s the reason for an alleged probing of Herbalife?

    In the past, the company had been accused of being a glorified “pyramid scheme” by hedge fund manager William Ackman. It seems the notion of such a scheme isn’t too far away from the concerns expressed by government agencies about Herbalife’s business practices.

    In such a scheme members are told to sell products or services, but are made to understand that they will not be making as much money until they bring in other individuals. The money flows upward, with persons on the bottom of the “pyramid” are paid very little or not at all.

    Herbalife said that it has not been directly contacted by the FBI regarding any investigation and it also vehemently denies being any sort of pyramid scheme. Apparently it’s not unusual for the government body to conduct a serious investigation of a company without having notified it of a probe.

    These series of federal investigations are just the latest.

    The Federal Trade Commission is also said to be taking a close look at how the business operates.

    Herbalife is a company with a network of distributors in 80 countries. China is said to be its fastest growing market.

    Image via YouTube