How The FBI Spies On Neo-Nazi Gangsters | US Eyes Smartwatch Surveillance | North Korea Hackers Target Covid Vaccine

Plus: iPhone 12: How To Change These ‘Risky’ iOS 14 Security Settings

Every so often on The Wiretap, I'm going to be running a feature called The Wire In Real Life (IRL). If you've seen The Wire, you'll know about the kinds of gnarly surveillance methods the fictional Baltimore cops used to catch Stringer Bell, et al. In this feature, we'll look at real-life cases where these powers have been put to use by the U.S. government. I'll simply give you some background and a link to the relevant search warrant. There will be no commentary about the legalities or the privacy implications, just the warrant and the government's explanation. It's then up to you to make your own judgement as to how and when the feds should be using these tools.

This first edition of The Wire IRL looks at the FBI's surveillance of the Aryan Brotherhood, a notorious neo-nazi gang that's mixed up in all kinds of violent crime, from murder to drug pushing. As revealed in a search warrant from Montana, the FBI recently got permission to tap the phones of Brotherhood members. In their surveillance of a man charged with dealing meth via the Aryan Brotherhood in Missoula, they allegedly caught him saying he wanted to murder FBI agents. (The DOJ said it couldn't comment on the status of any investigation, or if any such investigation existed).

To catch that same fugitive, the FBI also asked Verizon to provide location information on the target phone and requested permission to use what's commonly referred to as a Stingray, though its proper name is a cell-site simulator. The tool, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, does what it says on the tin: mimics a cell tower, monitoring which devices in the locality are connecting. Police who're looking for an individual phone will wait to see if it connects, then start tracking its location as they hunt down a suspect. This, of course, means that many innocent folks' phones will connect to the snooping device, though the government promises to delete any cellphone identifying information from those devices.

Reports of the suspect's arrest indicate these surveillance efforts were successful. His lawyer hadn't responded to requests for any response to the allegations. He remains innocent until proven guilty.

Read the court document in full here. Be warned: there's some offensive language within.

If you have any tips on government surveillance, drop me an email on tbrewster@forbes.com.

The Big Story

Top 5 Stories You Have To Read Today

The Air Force is hoping to track the spread of Internet of Things devices like smartwatches and connected fridges, buying software from a Washington D.C.-based company called SignalFrame. It looks to use data from cellphones to track what and where those IoT systems are and could be used as part of a sprawling surveillance system, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Joe Biden's team are finally getting the federal cybersecurity support needed to secure their sensitive information and communications. They'd previously been relying on Google services to operate.

Suspected North Korean hackers have been targeting one of the biggest Covid-19 vaccine developers in the world, AstraZeneca. It's unclear if they were successful, but they tried to trick the drug giant's staff by posing as recruiters on LinkedIn and WhatsApp, according to Jack Stubbs over at Reuters.

Amazon has been employing staff to keep tabs on labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements, according to documents leaked to Vice. The files came straight from Amazon’s Global Security Operations Center.

NSO Group, which has has become one of the more intriguing iPhone spyware creators in recent years, has always claimed to help governments catch the most egregious criminals around. But a Haaretz report dives deep into how it secured business in Mexico, where NSO's tech was allegedly used to snoop on lawyers and activists, whilst also going after the infamous drug baron known as El Chapo.

Winner Of The Week

Cybersecurity police at Interpol and Europol have had a bumper week. First Interpol, they announced the capture of Nigerian scammers who'd hacked into as many as 50,000 companies and government organizations. Then Europol said it had successfully prevented as much as $47 million in credit card theft, thanks to a global operation to hoover up stolen data from websites where cybercriminals sell banking information.

Loser Of The Week

Microsoft was on the receiving end of some negative press in the last week over a tool designed to track the productivity of staff. Though it was announced in October, over a month later it was picked up by privacy activists who said that tracking how often employees were emailing and attending meetings amounted to corporate surveillance of staff.