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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 12 2017, @01:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the of-course-they-did dept.

Recently unsealed records reveal a much more extensive secret relationship than previously known between the FBI and Best Buy's Geek Squad, including evidence the agency trained company technicians on law-enforcement operational tactics, shared lists of targeted citizens and, to covertly increase surveillance of the public, encouraged searches of computers even when unrelated to a customer's request for repairs.

To sidestep the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against warrantless invasions of private property, federal prosecutors and FBI officials have argued that Geek Squad employees accidentally find and report, for example, potential child pornography on customers' computers without any prodding by the government. Assistant United States Attorney M. Anthony Brown last year labeled allegations of a hidden partnership as "wild speculation." But more than a dozen summaries of FBI memoranda filed inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse this month in USA v. Mark Rettenmaier contradict the official line.

One agency communication about Geek Squad supervisor Justin Meade noted, "Agent assignments have been reviewed and are appropriate for operation of this source," that the paid informant "continues to provide valuable information on [child pornography] matters" and has "value due to his unique or potential access to FBI priority targets or intelligence responsive to FBI national and/or local collection."

Other records show how Meade's job gave him "excellent and frequent" access for "several years" to computers belonging to unwitting Best Buy customers, though agents considered him "underutilized" and wanted him "tasked" to search devices "on a more consistent basis."

Step 1: Put child porn on target's computer

Step 2: Report target to FBI

Step 3: Collect $500 bounty

Profit!!!

Previously on SoylentNews: Cooperation Alleged Between Best Buy and the FBI


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:49AM (6 children)

    by anubi (2828) on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:49AM (#477932) Journal

    It was a long time ago, but I brought a computer in for them to fix. All they could do is tell me I needed another machine.

    I ended up "fixing" it myself, but losing all my programs and data. You all know what I did... the standard master reset procedure which starts off by fdisk'ing your hard drive and deleting every partition on it. This is old-school. Talking DOS 3.30 here, fellas.

    Well, this was so long ago I had not yet collected spare parts, disk drives were very expensive, and I was quite ignorant. Today, I would do things a lot different and would have saved myself from all the frustration.

    It was then I became convinced that the Geek Squad was just another term for salesman... car analogy - you bring a car to them with a blown water pump - they tell you you need a new car. You KNOW at that point they are not mechanics.... they act just like tie-guys!

    Convinced that Best-Buy was not capable of delivering anything more than Executive-Level services ( basically hand-shakes with men wearing business suits ), I knew I was on my own when it came to computer stuff. You do not bring a car with a blown water pump to a suit-guy. How does one get the services of a computer mechanic without having to deal with the suit people? You may have to do it yourself if you want it done right, or pay through the nose for the services of someone else who tells yet someone else to do it - then expects me to sign a bunch of businesstalk which boils down to "we may or may not fix your problem, we may destroy your machine, but you will pay us anyway".

    I was hoping they had more advanced restoration technologies, as at the time I had several licensed and registered softwares running in my machine, and I did not want to go through all the hassles of re-installation of software which thought it was already installed and now being pirated. That whole mess taught me a huge lesson on building robust system architectures, and what will happen if I depend on someone else's permission to run. When I now design for an industrial application, I avoid like the plague the fancy eye-candy programs laced with DRM. Lately, I have been using Arduinos ( often more than one ) to do the critical stuff, which will continue to run standalone if necessary, and only use stuff like Windows for making the executive eye-candy reports they love so much. I know Windows can and will fail in the blink of an eye during some surprise update, or the executive opens up the wrong email attachment. I have met few people who have both the executive training to run an organization, and also have the computational training to know just how vulnerable computers are when running poorly understood code.

    I am talking about the executive skill to know how critical the wording is on a contract, and wants to know the purpose and legal meaning of every word on the contract, yet will accept willy-nilly whatever script some arbitrary web-author cares to ram into his machine.

    I know a lot of you IT guys have seen this... the money-men have no problem paying $600/hour for legal help, but balk at $60/hour for their computers. No wonder we live in a world where we can't as much as open up a document without risk of infecting our machines with malware. Now we end up outsourcing IT skills... great... now we are hiring the fox to guard the henhouse. Hard as hell to hold accountable someone working for someone else in another country that does not even speak your language! Especially with all this law in place to enforce ignorance of what's in the code.

    I do not know why we are taking this sitting down.... Is it ignorance? Apathy?

    I get laughed at a lot when even I go on my rants of where I think this is headed.... because I flat do not want to leave anyone in the kind of mess I see we are making with today's law and legal frameworks now being lobbied into place.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:35AM (3 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:35AM (#477946) Journal

    I know a lot of you IT guys have seen this... the money-men have no problem paying $600/hour for legal help, but balk at $60/hour for their computers.

    IMHO, it's two reasons. First, you can be burned by bad legal protection in a way that bad IT protection can't match with jail sentences and enormous fines. There's no news stories about someone spending a few decades in jail just because they had an easy to guess password. But we do hear routinely hear of innocent people spending decades in jail because they had bad lawyers. Frequently, you can move on or sell out after making bad IT decisions so the trouble doesn't stick to you. Legal trouble isn't so easy to escape.

    Second, they probably understand the legal world (or at least the rules for keeping themselves out of trouble) much better than they understand the strange boxes on their desk.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:51AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:51AM (#477954) Journal

      You're right - but!

      If you're somewhat trusted IT guy is putting child porn on your computer so that he can collect a bounty when he calls the FBI, you're pretty forked. LMAO, it's really funny, if you think about it. Again, you're right, but IT can burn every one of those executives, but the executives are too dumb to realize that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:59AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:59AM (#477955)

      someone spending a few decades in jail just because they had an easy to guess password

      Maybe this should happen. Not over just any easy to guess password. These hacks in the news all the time should result in criminal negligence charges. Of course, there'd need to be a way to pierce the corporate veil as well.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday March 12 2017, @06:07AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 12 2017, @06:07AM (#477959) Journal

        Of course, there'd need to be a way to pierce the corporate veil as well.

        The corporate veil is not a magic get-out-of-jail-free card and it applies to shareholders, not corporate officers actually responsible for the actions of the corporation.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @07:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @07:10AM (#477966)

    Best Buys did not have technicians or the Geek Squad in the DOS era.

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday March 12 2017, @08:22AM

      by anubi (2828) on Sunday March 12 2017, @08:22AM (#477972) Journal

      Windows was already out... I had brought them an older machine.

      I hang onto older tech when I have yet to trust the newer tech.

      I was afraid of Windows stuff too, as I could not reverse it - the old DOS stuff was usually a few hundred KB of code at the most. With a listing of decompiled output maybe the size of a book. I felt comfortable decompiling a DOS EXE to see what it did. Some of it was very time consuming to reverse, but if I had years of my work invested in drawings, I'd be damned to have the software holding my work hostage to compel me to comply with something. Especially stuff that enforces something years later, after I have substantial time invested in it.

      Trying to find a bug in a Windows executable was beyond my capability. I was losing it on Protected-Mode 286 stuff. You know, the Phar-Lap and similar stuff.

      Even today, I fail to embrace the new stuff in cars. When I read of all the "customer lock-in" crap with cars, I got queasy and really felt stupid putting down good money for one - so I ended up with an older Ford Diesel van. I was able to get ALL of the electrical documentation on it, and feel comfortable with it. I fully expect this van to outlive me.

      My bringing in that computer to BestBuy is like my now bringing my van in for service.

      If a mechanic looks at it, and tells me he can't replace the water pump cause "he can't read the codes", I do not think that guy should be trusted with a wrench.

      I have to consider that one a "business-class mechanic", as he's good at looking good, shaking hands, and presenting paperwork full of "we may or may not fix your thing, but you understand you pay us anyway" and have the presentation skills to get the customer to sign it. His technical skill may be limited to filling the tank, checking the oil, and cleaning the windshield. I have already had my neighbors tell me tales of woe over car repair, as well as a lot of my relatives are pissed off farmers reeking over what John Deere and other manufactures are throwing their way simply because Congress has given them the copyright/patent tools for enforcing monopolistic behaviour. I see the throwaway game they are playing to force me to constantly buy this years new shiny, and I am resisting any which a way I can.

      New Car! New House! What did you do? coos one TV ad making its rounds.... answer? DEBT! I do not want to go there.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]