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Best Buy's Geek Squad searched customer computers for the FBI
CBS NEWS ^ | March 7, 2018

Posted on 03/07/2018 9:47:13 PM PST by EinNYC

A child pornography case involving a California doctor has revealed that Best Buy's Geek Squad technicians allegedly worked with the FBI to uncover data on customer's computers for years, CBS Pittsburgh reports. A non-profit organization claims that the nature of the FBI's relationship with the technicians may have violated the U.S. Constitution.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year after it learned that the FBI allegedly paid Geek Squad employees to pass along information about illegal materials on devices sent in by customers for repairs.

One search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist's deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Rettenmaier's computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All of the charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after a judge said an FBI agent made "false and misleading statements" to obtain a search warrant for the doctor's house.

EFF says their FOIA request revealed that Best Buy has been working with the FBI for at least 10 years. An FBI memo acquired in the lawsuit shows that Best Buy hosted a meeting and tour of their Kentucky repair facility for the FBI's Cyber Working Group in 2008. The memo and related email also claim that agents "maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad's management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division's Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs."

Other court records uncovered in the FOIA search found that Geek Squad technicians were paid between $500 and $1,000 to actively search a client's computer.

The reports have raised concerns that the FBI is using the Geek Squad to bypass the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Best Buy spokesperson Jeff Shelman denied the claims in 2017. Shelman said their technicians don't do "anything other than what is necessary to solve the customer's problem," according to The Washington Post. Shelman added that if illegal material is found during those repairs, Geek Squad employees are obligated to contact law enforcement.

In a statement provided to our partner site ZDNet, Best Buy confirmed that three of four managers who received payments from the FBI are no longer at the company. The statement reads in full:

"As we said more than a year ago, our Geek Squad repair employees discover what appears to be child pornography on customers' computers nearly 100 times a year. Our employees do not search for this material; they inadvertently discover it when attempting to confirm we have recovered lost customer data.

We have a moral and, in more than 20 states, a legal obligation to report these findings to law enforcement. We share this policy with our customers in writing before we begin any repair.

As a company, we have not sought or received training from law enforcement in how to search for child pornography. Our policies prohibit employees from doing anything other than what is necessary to solve the customer's problem. In the wake of these allegations, we have redoubled our efforts to train employees on what to do -- and not do -- in these circumstances.

We have learned that four employees may have received payment after turning over alleged child pornography to the FBI. Any decision to accept payment was in very poor judgement and inconsistent with our training and policies. Three of these employees are no longer with the company and the fourth has been reprimanded and reassigned."


TOPICS: Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: bestbuy; fbi; geeksquad; paidinvestigators
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To: Clutch Martin

I wonder what kind of effect it is going to have on their business.


41 posted on 03/08/2018 6:14:51 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette)
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To: EinNYC

Once the FBI crosses the line and pays the geek squad, they are no longer independent. At that time, they are agents of the FBI. As such, without a warrant and without full disclosure to their customers that the drives will be searched, it is an illegal search.


42 posted on 03/08/2018 6:37:19 AM PST by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt)
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To: Flick Lives

It is possible to finger print a drive. The easiest way is to create an iso of the hard drive and then use a cryptographic hash. Any changes to the drive will invalidate the hash.


43 posted on 03/08/2018 6:40:05 AM PST by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt)
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To: Fresh Wind

The debut album cover by Blind Faith


44 posted on 03/08/2018 7:10:59 AM PST by Finatic (Sometimes I think it would be nice to just get it on and get it over with. Once and for all.)
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To: TChad

“Who will trust them now? “

who ever trusted them in the first place? i know a woman who took her laptop there and they claimed to have lost it, offering to “replace” it only with a USED laptop! (My guess is they didn’t actually lose it, but probably ruined it somehow, and it was easier to lie and say it was stolen, rather than fess up that they accidentally destroyed it.)


45 posted on 03/08/2018 7:34:14 AM PST by catnipman ( Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Hardastarboard

“They were like a bunch of monkeys with hammers”

i read that the BB techs get more training in up-selling than they do in actual tech technique.

if i have a REALLY troublesome tech client or someone i strongly suspect will be REALLY troublesome, i kindly suggest they consider going to BB for service ...


46 posted on 03/08/2018 7:39:10 AM PST by catnipman ( Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: cynwoody
I've been interested in this story since Best Buy gave me a copy of Kaspersky Internet Security with my protection plan for my computer.

I like the software, and it gets high marks, but I don't quite know what to make of the recent stories. On the one hand, an NSA worker took home protected documents which KIS detected and sent signature data back home to be analyzed. That's what the software is supposed to do when it heuristically detects a virus, right? On the other hand, Russia...

Do you have any thoughts on this? I'm all eyes.

-PJ

47 posted on 03/08/2018 7:47:46 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: sparklite2

And what is to prevent these Geek Squad scum from planting such porn on a conservative’s computer!? Grrrrrr


48 posted on 03/08/2018 8:50:29 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Political Junkie Too

I have used Kaspersky for years and love it! Anyone who thinks I am inadvertently giving data to the Rooskis better wonder what happens to THEIR data as well.


49 posted on 03/08/2018 8:53:57 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: SgtHooper
I have used Kaspersky for years and love it! Anyone who thinks I am inadvertently giving data to the Rooskis better wonder what happens to THEIR data as well.

I have also used Kaspersky for years and love it. Any Russian looking over what's on my computer would be caught snoring.

50 posted on 03/08/2018 10:36:50 AM PST by EinNYC
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To: PapaBear3625
Consider the police or feds paying auto-repair shops to examine cars for contraband while under repair, and have the cops pull you over as soon as you pick up your car.

Video shows Baltimore police planting evidence

51 posted on 03/08/2018 10:49:55 AM PST by COBOL2Java (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen)
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To: taxcontrol
It is possible to finger print a drive. The easiest way is to create an iso of the hard drive and then use a cryptographic hash. Any changes to the drive will invalidate the hash.

Very good idea.

52 posted on 03/08/2018 10:54:04 AM PST by COBOL2Java (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen)
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To: Political Junkie Too; cynwoody

You mean the FSB? Or the GRU?


53 posted on 03/08/2018 11:28:43 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: EinNYC

Geek Squad exists for one reason.
To tell you the following:

“Duh....your computer is broken. But, you can buy a shiny NEW one here at Best Buy!”


54 posted on 03/08/2018 12:14:49 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: a fool in paradise

They would and (obviously have) if my name was “Hillary Clinton.” No doubt the Feds wouldn’t have accepted being locked out of the RNC’s tech.


55 posted on 03/08/2018 4:14:58 PM PST by Moonlighter
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To: Political Junkie Too
Do you have any thoughts on this? I'm all eyes.

I would not use Kaspersky if I thought any of my stuff would be of interest to the Russian intel community. And certainly not if I held any US security clearance or were involved federally!

From Kaspersky's Wikipedia article (boldface added):

Kaspersky graduated from The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School in 1987 with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology. His interest in IT security began when his work computer was infected with the Cascade virus in 1989 and he developed a program to remove it. Kaspersky helped grow Kaspersky Lab through security research and salesmanship. He became the CEO in 2007 and remains so as of 2017.

Actually, being a Mac user, I don't bother with anti-virus.

56 posted on 03/08/2018 11:04:35 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: nickcarraway; Political Junkie Too
You mean the FSB? Or the GRU?

I assumed PJT was using the term KGB as a shorthand for Russian Intelligence, so I went with it, too, not wanting to disrupt the flow with a discussion of the exact TLAs.

The GRU, formerly Soviet Military Intelligence, lives on as Russian Military Intelligence. It was the Army then. It is the Army now.

As for the KGB, it lives on as the SVR (MI6/CIA/NSA — foreign spying) and the FSB (MI5/FBI — counterintelligence and domestic spying).

"Viktor Suvorov," a GRU officer who defected to the UK in the 1980s, wrote an interesting commentary on how checks and balances worked to preserve the Soviet regime. Excerpt:

A triangle is the strongest and most rigid geometric figure. If the planks of a door which you have knocked together begin to warp, nail another plank diagonally across them. This will divide your rectangular construction into two triangles and the door will then have the necessary stability.

The triangle has been used in engineering for a very long time. Look at the Eiffel tower, at the metal framework of the airship Hindenburg, or just at any railway bridge, and you will see that each of these is an amalgamation of thousands of triangles, which give the structure rigidity and stability.

The triangle is strong and stable, not only in engineering but in politics, too. Political systems based on division of power and on the interplay of three balancing forces have been the most stable throughout history. These are the principles upon which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is built.

...

Only three forces are active in the Soviet political arena-the Party, the Army and the KGB. Each of these possesses enormous power, but this is exceeded by the combined strength of the other two. Each has its own secret organisation, which is capable of reaching into hostile countries and monitoring developments there. The Party has its Control Commission-a secret organisation which has almost as much influence inside the country as the KGB. The KGB is a grouping of many different secret departments, some of which keep an eye on the Party. The Army has its own secret service-the GRU-the most effective military intelligence service in the world.

Each of these three forces is hostile to the others and has certain, not unreasonable pretensions to absolute power but its initiatives will always fail in the face of the combined opposition of the other two.

...

Let us look at an example of the way this triangle of power functions. Stalin died in 1953. Observers concluded unanimously that Beriya would take command-Beriya the chief inquisitor and head policeman. Who else was there? Beriya, his gang of ruffians, and the whole of his organisation realised that their chance to lead had arrived. The power in their hands was unbelievable. There was a special file on every senior party functionary and every general and there would be no difficulty in putting any one of them before a firing squad. It was this very power which destroyed Beriya. Both the Army and the Party understood their predicament. This brought them together and together they cut off the head of the chief executioner. The most powerful members of the security apparatus came to unpleasant ends and their whole machine of oppression was held up to public ridicule. The propaganda organisation of the Party worked overtime to explain to the country the crimes of Stalin and of his whole security apparatus.

...

Representing, as it does, a fusion of three powers, the Politburo is fully aware that it draws its own stability from each of these sources. It can be compared to the seat of a three-legged stool. If one of the legs is longer than the others, the stool will fall over. The same will happen if one of the legs is shorter than the others. For their own safety, therefore, the members of the Politburo, whether they come from the Party, the KGB or the Army, do everything they can to maintain equilibrium. The secret of Brezhnev's survival lies in his skill in keeping the balance between the trio, restraining any two from combining against the third.

That's how it worked then.

As for now, it looks more or less what a Mafia takeover of the US federal government might look.

57 posted on 03/09/2018 12:12:54 AM PST by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody
Yes, thank you for the leeway.

I was interested in whether the recent controversy surrounding Kaspersky is legitimate or just more "Russia."

As I said earlier, articles suggest that the issue began when an NSA worker improperly brought home some classified documents. These documents were encoded with NSA tags that could be identified as malware. The worker was wrong to bring this material home and copy it to his home computer, which was running Kaspersky internet protection software. The software heuristics identified the malware and sent signature data back to Kaspersky Labs for analysis as it was supposed to do, so the company alleges.

I don't know if this is a legitimate concern or just partisans using a Russian business to further undermine Trump's administration. I suppose Obama could have done the same thing to MacAfee after he was accused of murdering his neighbor.

Eugene Kaspersky denies that he was working with the Kremlin, and said he'd move the company out of Russia if he were ever asked to spy. This article suggests that Kaspersky was working with the Russian FSB, but also points to similar cases where the FBI worked with American security companies. Bloomberg was an early accuser of Kaspersky.

So what does one make of this, beyond the simple ad hominems? Is this a case of "everybody does it?" Is this life in the brave new world? Is it American protectionism and partisan sniping? Is it a legitimate threat?

-PJ

58 posted on 03/09/2018 7:12:00 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: sparklite2

“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”


59 posted on 03/09/2018 7:15:50 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Political Junkie Too
As I said earlier, articles suggest that the issue began when an NSA worker improperly brought home some classified documents. These documents were encoded with NSA tags that could be identified as malware. The worker was wrong to bring this material home and copy it to his home computer, which was running Kaspersky internet protection software. The software heuristics identified the malware and sent signature data back to Kaspersky Labs for analysis as it was supposed to do, so the company alleges.

Kaspersky has produced a detailed report on the incident. Digging back through their malware sample uploads, they found a malware-containing 7zip archive which happened also to contain four documents bearing US classification markings. They claim to have deleted the documents from their files, and they deny sharing them with anyone.

Also, combing through the alerts the system had triggered, Kaspersky uncovered evidence it had been infected with malware. Seems our NSA man installed a pirated copy of Office. However, the installer came with a virus:

During the investigation, we also discovered a very interesting twist to the story that has not been discussed publicly to our knowledge. Since we were attempting to be as thorough as possible, we analyzed EVERY alert ever triggered for the specific system in question and came to a very interesting conclusion. It appears the system was actually compromised by a malicious actor on October 4, 2014 at 23:38 local time, specifically by a piece of malware hidden inside a malicious MS Office ISO, specifically the “setup.exe” file (md5: a82c0575f214bdc7c8ef5a06116cd2a4 – for detection coverage, see this VirusTotal link) .

Looking at the sequence of events and detections on this system, we quickly noticed that the user in question ran the above file with a folder name of “Office-2013-PPVL-x64-en-US-Oct2013.iso”. What is interesting is that this ISO file is malicious and was mounted and subsequently installed on the system along with files such as “kms.exe” (a name of a popular pirated software activation tool), and “kms.activator.for.microsoft.windows.8.server.2012.and.office.2013.all.editions”. Kaspersky Lab products detected the malware with the verdict Backdoor.Win32.Mokes.hvl.

At a later time after installation of the supposed MS Office 2013, the antivirus began blocking connections out on a regular basis to the URL “http://xvidmovies[.]in/dir/index.php”. Looking into this domain, we can quickly find other malicious files that beacon to the same URL. It’s important to note that the reason we know the system was beaconing to this URL is because we were actively blocking it as it was a known bad site. This does however indicate the user actively downloaded / installed malware on the same system around the same time frame as our detections on the Equation files.

To install and run this malware, the user must have disabled Kaspersky Lab products on his machine. Our telemetry does not allow us to say when the antivirus was disabled, however, the fact that the malware was later detected as running in the system suggests the antivirus had been disabled or was not running when the malware was run. Executing the malware would not have been possible with the antivirus enabled.

Their report also links to a detailed analysis of the malware.

The NSA guy, Nghia Hoang Pho, pled guilty last Dec 1. He was working on Tailored Access Operations (TAO) malware, which the NSA uses to hack into foreign computers. It defies belief a professional NSA malware writer could be so careless!

So what does one make of this, beyond the simple ad hominems? Is this a case of "everybody does it?" Is this life in the brave new world? Is it American protectionism and partisan sniping? Is it a legitimate threat?

I wouldn't run anything that uploads user files on a system used for sensitive work. Kaspersky and his employees may be white hat angels, but their office is only seven miles from Lubyanka. How hard would it be to hack them or infiltrate them?

Here's how it looked when Dmitry Medvedev got a tour of Kaspersky HQ in 2009:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVv4is_vkHI

60 posted on 03/09/2018 8:39:43 PM PST by cynwoody
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