The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), specifically their Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), has issued a warning to users of smartphones running Google’s Android operating system concerning “new” viruses which have become increasingly widespread.

However, at least one of these viruses is far from new. Indeed, one of the two viruses identified by the FBI is one which is marketed to governments. This is hardly surprising given the rise in state-sponsored malicious software.

FinFisher, for instance, was uncovered by the Wall Street Journal and revealed to be a product which is marketed directly to governments around the world, especially the United States government.

“Once loaded onto your phone, FinFisher can remotely control and monitor your phone, no matter where you are,” according to WXYZ Detroit. “This virus is transmitted through what seems to be a system update, sent through a [text-message] or a web link.”
The other piece of malware is Loozfon, which is designed to steal the contact information from a device infected with the virus.

Interestingly however, much of this information is already collected by Google’s Android operating system. This data they collect can be used in any and every way they see fit thanks to their modified privacy policy.

Read More at globalpoliticalawakening.com . By Madison Ruppert.

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(CNSNews.com) – According to an affidavit released by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Floyd Lee Corkins II was carrying over 50 rounds of ammunition and had 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches in a backpack when he pronounced “I don’t like your politics,” and allegedly opened fire Wednesday morning at the Family Research Council offices in Washington, D.C., wounding a security guard in the arm.

The Family Research Council is a conservative traditional values organization, advocating for “family, faith and freedom.”

Corkins, a Herndon, Va., resident, was arraigned Thursday in federal court on charges of “Interstate Transportation of a Firearm and Ammunition” and “Assault with the Intent to Kill While Armed.”

U.S. Magistrate Alan Kay ordered Corkins to be held without bond, pending a bond hearing on Aug. 24. He also ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Corkins.

The affidavit states that a person identified as “Witness 1” said that Corkins encountered security guard Leo Johnson and stated words to the effect of “I don’t like your politics.”

Read More at CNSNews. By Elizabeth Harrington.

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Recently-released documents show that the FBI has been working since late 2011 with four states–Michigan, Hawaii, Maryland, and possibly Oregon–to ramp up the Next Generation Identification (NGI) Facial Recognition Program. When the program is fully deployed in 2014, the FBI expects its facial recognition database will contain at least 12 million “searchable frontal photos.” (p. 6)

The documents, which the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) obtained from a recent meeting of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory Policy Board,1 shed new light on the FBI’s plans for NGI–the Bureau’s massive biometrics database that combines fingerprints, iris scans, palm prints, facial recognition and extensive biographical data collected from over 100 million Americans.

The Advisory Board documents show that FBI’s database of facial images will provide search results automatically (the system won’t need to rely on a human to check the results before forwarding them to the state or local agency) and that the FBI is developing “Universal Face Workstation software” to allow states that don’t have their own “Face/Photo search capabilities” to search through the FBI’s images.

After we read through the Advisory Board documents, we quickly sent Open Records requests to several of the states involved in the pilot program. The documents we received from Maryland and Hawaii further flesh out the story. For example, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Hawaii and the FBI shows that the government is building NGI to “permit photo submissions independent of arrests.” This is a problem because, the FBI has stated it wants to use its facial recognition system to “identify[] subjects in public datasets” and “conduct[] automated surveillance at lookout locations” (p.5). This suggests the FBI wants to be able to search and identify people in photos of crowds and in pictures posted on social media sites–even if the people in those photos haven’t been arrested for or even suspected of a crime. The FBI may also want to incorporate those crowd or social media photos into its face recognition database.

And an MOU between Maryland and the FBI will allow Maryland to submit photos in bulk to the database–something that Maryland described in an email as a “photo data dump.” This kind of an agreement could be used in the future to incorporate the same kind of facial identifying information already collected by 32 of 50 state DMVs solely to prevent fraud and identity theft.

Read More at informationliberation.com. By Jennifer Lynch.

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