More FBI Hacking: Feds Crack Wi-Fi to Gather Evidence

Buried in the 150 pages of CIPAV spyware-related documents released by the FBI Thursday is a tantalizing nugget that indicates the bureau’s technology experts have more than one way to hack a suspect.

In early 2007, FBI agents with one of the bureau’s International Terrorism Operations Sections sought hacking help from the FBI’s geek squads. The agents were working a case in Pittsburgh, which is not described in the documents, and wanted to know “if [a] remote computer attack can be conducted against [the] target.”

The FBI’s Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit, CEAU, responded with two options. One of them was redacted from the released document as a sensitive investigative technique. The other is described this way:  “CEAU advised Pittsburgh that they could assist with a wireless hack to obtain a file tree, but not the hard drive content.”