secret service

JotForm, a service that lets people create forms on the Web, has been suspended by the U.S. Secret Service as a result of content a user posted online, according to the co-founder of the company that created JotForm.

But by this afternoon there were signs that the matter was being corrected, Aytekin Tank, who co-founded JotForm creator Interlogy Internet Technology, told CNET.

"Although it is still not propagated, our DNS (Domain Name System) for Jotform.com started pointing back to the correct names. They have not notified us but it looks like they might have lifted the suspension,&… Read more

Britain's largest police force is using covert surveillance technology that can shut off mobile phones and intercept communications, according to a report in The Guardian.

The article says that the London Metropolitan Police Service bought the technology, which acts like a fake cell tower, from a U.K.-based company called Datong plc. The suitcase-sized receiver reportedly tricks cell phones into thinking they are communicating on a regular cellular network, and this allows authorities to intercept text messages, data, and phone calls. Authorities can also track users within range of the fake cell phone network, the report says. It … Read more

Expensive high-tech digital radios used by the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security are designed so poorly that they can be jammed by a $30 children's toy, CNET has learned.

A GirlTech IMME, Mattel's pink instant-messaging device with a miniature keyboard that's marketed to pre-teen girls, can be used to disrupt sensitive radio communications used by every major federal law enforcement agency, a team of security researchers from the University of Pennsylvania is planning to announce tomorrow.

Converting the GirlTech gadget into a jammer may be beyond the ability of a street criminal for now, but that … Read more

This could change your life in so many ways. If you're adroit with bikes, that is.

For the United States Secret Service needs someone to fix its Harley Davidsons. And it is reaching out to the coolerati on Twitter to find the perfect character. Perhaps the normal channels have brought up a string of duds. Perhaps, from Twitter's very public nature, there will emerge one fine bike mechanic who knows how to keep his mouth shut.

No, I cannot be sure the Service is in possession of Harleys. But I cannot be sure that it isn't. That'… Read more

Fox News has alerted the U.S. Secret Service that the cable news show's Twitter feed was used today to publish false reports that President Obama had been killed.

The attack apparently was completed about 11 p.m. PT Sunday, when a tweet appeared that said, "Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th."

Shortly afterward came the first of several Obama-related tweets: "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead."

The tweets were still live on the Twitter Web site … Read more

Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report for last year is a bit of a head scratcher. It shows that while the number of data breaches from cyber attacks rose, the amount of compromised records lost has fallen.

While there were 760 data breaches recorded by Verizon and the U.S. Secret Service in 2010 (up from about 140 in 2009), there were only 4 million compromised records involved (way down from 144 million in 2009), according to the Verizon 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report scheduled to be released on Tuesday. The figures represent both a record high number of incidents … Read more

Albert Gonzalez, the hacker who pleaded guilty to leading one of the largest cases of credit card theft in the U.S., is asking a judge to toss out the pleas, arguing that they were part of his assignments as a paid government informant.

"I still believe that I was acting on behalf of the United States Secret Service and that I was authorized and directed to engage in the conduct I committed as part of my assignment to gather intelligence and seek out international cybercriminals," Gonzalez wrote in a 25-page petition filed March 24 with the U.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--When agents at the Drug Enforcement Administration learned a suspect was using PGP to encrypt documents, they persuaded a judge to let them sneak into an office complex and install a keystroke logger that recorded the passphrase as it was typed in.

A decade ago, when the search warrant was granted, that kind of black bag job was a rarity. Today, however, law enforcement agents are encountering well-designed encryption products more and more frequently, forcing them to invent better ways to bypass or circumvent the technology.

"Every new agent who goes to the Secret Service academy goes through … Read more

Organized criminals were responsible for 85 percent of all stolen data last year and of the unauthorized access incidents, 38 percent of the data breaches took advantage of stolen login credentials, according to the 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations report to be released on Wednesday.

While external agents were behind 70 percent of the breaches, nearly 50 percent were caused by insiders and only 11 percent were attributed to business partners, concluded the report, which focused on data breaches that took place in 2009.

The study combined data from investigations and statistics worldwide compiled by Verizon and the U.S. … Read more