LAW ENFORCEMENT URGED TO EXECISE CAUTION, DISCRETION ONLINE
|| By FITSNEWS || The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) are urging police to be leery of online “hacktivists” seeking personal information about them and their families via social media.
“Law enforcement personnel and public officials may be at an increased risk of cyber attacks,” an FBI release stated. “These attacks can be precipitated by someone scanning networks or opening infected emails containing malicious attachments or links.”
According to the government, hacking collectives are “leveraging open source, publicly available information identifying officers, their employers, and their families.”
Yeah … sounds a lot like what the National Security Agency (NSA) is doing, doesn’t it?
Anyway … the FBI is concerned that police officers who post identifying information on social media (including images of themselves in uniform) are making themselves more vulnerable to being “targeted.”
“Law enforcement personnel and public officials need to maintain an enhanced awareness of the content they post and how it may reflect on themselves, their family, their employer or how it could be used against them in court or during online attacks,” the FBI release warned.
In fact the FBI is issuing its warning in response to an existing threat ….
“Recent activity suggests family members of law enforcement personnel and public officials are also at risk for cyber attacks and doxing activity,” the agency stated. “Targeted information may include personally identifiable information and public information and pictures from social media Web sites.”
“Doxing,” by the way, is the process of “compiling and posting an individual’s personal information without permission.”
The FBI is also concerned the data collection efforts could lead to “swatting,” which is the process of “calling law enforcement authorities to report a hostage situation or other critical incident” when no such incident exists.
What do we make of all this?
We’re not sure … we’re tempted to invoke the whole “taste of your own medicine” term, but we’d hate to see honest law enforcement officers get hurt by something they (or their family) posted online.
Hopefully police in your neck of the woods are exercising caution …
5 comments
Gimme a break! USAToday reported last weekend that the feds had been snooping into personal calls for a DECADE before 9/11 and still the feds with their 26 snooper agencies couldn’t prevent 9/11! You think creeps with their cereal box spy gear are a threat? Ha1 Ha!
When the NSA, FBI, CIA, DoD, and all the other “spy on our own citizen” agencies couldnt prevent 9/11 with all their govt money and secret courts signing warrants…..maybe the govt should be afraid of some neck beards who know how to proxy around the regional blocks on netflix
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for
LAW ENFORCEMENT TO BE URGED TO EXERCISE CAUTION, DISCRETION IN THE REAL WORLD
Any hack should be met with the immediate removal of all microwaveable puff pastries from grocery stores within 6 zip codes of the offending ip address. Also, the cops should start regular beatdowns at the geek conventions. ????
Hackers will target anybody and everybody. Everybody knows THAT. MIllions of us are already doxed, if you have any level of public profile….you can be assured you are doxed. This article seems wanting to elevate a group to an exalted status…..so if you hack info of a cop you become “hacktivist”….nonsense….and convenient opportunity to elevate the declining image of cops in the eyes of our citizens, due to their own doings. Its not anything related to activism….activism is happening all across the country in plain sight…dont they see…of course they dont!