FaceApp and Other Russian Apps Pose Potential Counterintelligence Threats, Says FBI (axios.com) 22
The FBI warned in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Monday that it considers mobile applications developed in Russia, including the popular photo-aging app "FaceApp," to be "potential counterintelligence threats." Axios reports: FaceApp is a Russian-owned mobile application that allows users to upload photos of themselves and see what they may look like at a different age. Experts warned about potential privacy and national security concerns when the app spiked in popularity this past summer, prompting Schumer to request that the FBI and Federal Trade Commission look into the matter in July. "The FBI considers any mobile application or similar product developed in Russia, such as FaceApp, to be a potential counterintelligence threat, based on the data the product collects, its privacy and terms of use policies, and the legal mechanisms available to the Government of Russia that permit access to data within Russia's borders." The agency goes on to say: "Russia's intelligence services maintain robust cyber exploitation capabilities [...] the [Russian Federal Security Service] can remotely access all communications and servers on Russian networks without making a request to ISPs."
The FBI said it will coordinate for notifications and investigations, and will work with applicable task forces if the app is perceived as a threat to "elected officials, candidates, political campaigns or political parties." Schumer said in a statement: "In light of FBI's warning that FaceApp, and similar applications developed in Russia, poses a potential counterintelligence threat to the United States, I strongly urge all Americans to consider deleting apps like FaceApp immediately and proceed with extreme caution when downloading apps developed in hostile foreign countries."
The FBI said it will coordinate for notifications and investigations, and will work with applicable task forces if the app is perceived as a threat to "elected officials, candidates, political campaigns or political parties." Schumer said in a statement: "In light of FBI's warning that FaceApp, and similar applications developed in Russia, poses a potential counterintelligence threat to the United States, I strongly urge all Americans to consider deleting apps like FaceApp immediately and proceed with extreme caution when downloading apps developed in hostile foreign countries."
The cold war is back (Score:2)
And better than ever!
Re: (Score:1)
They ARE the most fun enemy though ... (Score:2)
Nobody is as good at distracting us from the fuck-ups at home.
Nobody has a better Gollum-like presitroll!
China are just too boring. Arab terrorists are too stupid and primitive. Only Russia got dem sweet haxors and nuclear submarines and James Bond shit. And that accent!
Russia number o... ...
. . . *coughts*
*pulls down sweater*
Got too excited there
Re: (Score:2)
Could be a boon to the US actually. We just don't function quite as well without a threat that someone's dick might theoretically be slightly bigger.
Re: (Score:1)
By percentage of body mass, everybody's dick is bigger than the US's. Politics is about the metric you use to measure your own dick.
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Every App is a threat to user privacy (Score:3, Informative)
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For human spying? No.
The NSA and GCHQ are fine as Russia has to connect to the internet.
The CIA and FBI cant swap names and use faces the way they could in the past as too many faces exist on social media.
The levels of education, time in mil, languages, wealth suddenly drop out.
Everyone can see the former mil/contractors face does not match a presented fictional resume, CV, as a tourist, academic, bird watcher, butterfly expert..
Keep an entire generation of peo
Re: Every App is a threat to user privacy (Score:1)
You really think the the letter agencies haven't cultivated ties with Facebook etc to allow the creation of real looking profiles? If they can get that done in the passport office, the DMV, and in random employers, then they can dangle some carrot to Facebook to get it done.
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The silliness about the claims, is not in the claims but they practically scream, this is exactly what they are doing in Russia with US supplied software and web sites. It eats at their brain, what they are doing and on noes the Russians are probably doing it as well. So they announce to the world what the US is doing by accusing the Russian's of doing it.
Yep any country using US applications and web sites is being spied upon 24/7/365 every single user. Every country in world should take notice of those US
Only if you don't have access to the data. (Score:2)
How many special agents did it need to come to this conclusion?
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To "look" at social media every day..all day...
A decade later they have many a US face at every college, school, university...mil, port, fort, camp, holiday, party...
The years in the mil cant be hidden later as years learning theology and starting a CIA backed NGO...
Guess the USA will have to find cult members who never got allowed to use social media... or find that real theology expert who wants to spy...
Russia h
See what a US spy looked like a decade ago? (Score:3, Interesting)
That they cant swap out a spy for an embassy worker? That digital tech in the USA will find some old image from their mil/college years and age up the image?
That image will match the mil/spy... not the embassy workers CIA created fictional past for?
The old CIA method of a paper work swap and name change wont hold up in the digital decades?
Has Russia scanned every US yearbook going back decades and is it adding computer age to every image?
Did the FBI get scans of every Soviet and Russian "yearbook" to age up to see who is entering the USA?
Did the FBI look at every passport used to enter the USA and match it back to a global collection of education/university/mil/emerging online social media images?
The names should drop out if every passport in use is getting scanned...
Fake ID, fake name, top university, now claims limited education under another nations passport...
Names and faces of US NGO, tourists, embassy workers, think tank academics dont look like they fit their "academic" past?
Create college paper work for spies, expect later digital work to find that face change. The face that never attended class.
Got images of spies and ml contractors online? Trying to be academics, NGO workers, people of faith a decade later with no US gov/mil/contractor past?
That 1950-1990's paper work name change trick back at college wont hold...
Pro tip? Want a NGO worker to spy for the USA... find a real NGO worker.
Want an academic to spy for the CIA around the world... find a real academic...
The more another nation looks into their past, the more average and real the person is...
Beware ot the crocodile (Score:4)
says the snake...
Threats to elected oficials? (Score:2)
I just wanted to know what Bernie Sanders would look like after two terms.
meanwhile (Score:3)
I strongly urge all Americans to consider deleting apps like FaceApp immediately and proceed with extreme caution when downloading apps developed in hostile foreign countries
No shit, Sherlock. There's no reason a flashlight app needs full access to network/contacts/email/etc. either.
Meanwhile, big tech colluding to suppress and censor news stories related to a major political event. [breitbart.com]
Think the FBI could do something useful for once, and expose how these supposedly independent platforms are coordinating their censorship?
Haaaaa .. Oh the irony :] (Score:1)
ANY app? This is getting ridiculous. (Score:2)
So you are saying there are NO good guys whatsoever in Russia?
Not a single deverloper might share our notion of Putin to being a Gollum?
Riiiight...
Sorry, I think there are more nice guys that hate Putin in Russia, than in the FBI.
They have to actually live with that fucker, you know?
Why don't you just go to the logical conclusion you probably already fantasize about, and put a yellow star on every Russian?
Do you want the citizens to side with Putin? Because if there is one thing that will turn them, it will
Re: ANY app? This is getting ridiculous. (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:2)