Knock, knock, It's the FBI

[Tweaker]

Just imagine if one day in the near future the FBI comes to your enterprise with warrants that allow them to seize and remove any computer-related equipment, utility bills, telephone bills, any addressed correspondence sent through the U.S. mail, video gear, camera equipment, checkbooks, bank statements and credit card statements. The first question you'd ask is, "Who has done what?"

You're going to be presume your CEO has been involved in some outrageous stock manipulation, or maybe your CFO has been cooking the books. But no, the agent in charge says: "Someone here clicked on a Web link and we're going to find out who did it."...

Now, this is interesting for a number of reasons that should worry all of us in the IT industry. First, there's the issue of intent. It turns out that by simply accessing one of these links you are de facto, presumed guilty by your IP address being the proximate cause.

The fact that the action might not have been done by you personally is, apparently, not an issue. This makes running an open Wi-Fi access point completely inadvisable. And when your friends come over and ask to check their e-mail, the answer has got to be "no." And you'd better have in-depth Internet filtering for your kids.

The second issue concerns browser add-ons that attempt to pre-cache the content of links on a page. These add-ons are to improve perceived performance, but imagine that you run a Web search and wind up on a page that links to one of these FBI honeypots: Your browser will access the link and, unless you are masking what you do through something like the Tor network, the Feds will get your IP address. Before you know what's going on, there will be a knock on your door, you'll be hurled to the ground, cuffed, Mirandized, and all of your computer gear, financial records and leftover Chinese food will be en route to the local FBI office.

More on this story here.

[Cigar smoker]

leftover Chinese food will be en route to the local FBI office.

I had no idea the F.B.I. was so fond of Chinese food.

[Snurfen]

So, what are you going to do? Implement better filtering? Train employees better? Ensure browsers don't pre-cache? This is a quagmire that has no immediate good answer.

How true! As if we weren't all losing enough sleep (still) worrying over SOX!

[Cigar smoker]

How is this going to effect the tens of thousands of free wifi points at Starbucks, McDonalds, libraries, etc.etc,etc.......