TAILS IS BACK ANONYMOUS AFTER THE FACEBOOK AND FBI CASE

 

Dear Tecnogalaxy readers, today we will talk about a case involving Facebook, FBI and Tails. We will talk about what happened and the consequences.

WHAT IS TAILS?

Tails is a very popular Linux distro based on Debian. The intent of this distro is to ensure the anonymity of its users, thanks to Tor.

WHAT HAPPENED?

A few weeks ago, Facebook paid a cybersecurity company to develop a hack tool, for Tails OS zero-day. The motive for this action is for the tracking and arrest of a pedophile, taking an unprecedented step to help the FBI identify and catch a criminal.

Facebook played a key role in tracking down Buster Hernandez. The Californian reportedly harassed, exploited and extorted their nude photos and videos from young girls. Not only did he threaten to rape and kill them, but he also sent them explicit messages to inform them that he can carry out mass shootings in their schools if they do not meet his demands. This exploitation went on for years, and most of the communications took place through Facebook, email and chat applications. Taking a step in the right direction, Facebook has decided to work with the FBI to locate the abuser.

The reason the FBI had to ask Facebook for help is that Hernandez was a pro at hiding his true identity, and he used Tails OS for this purpose. However, Facebook paid the security company a six-figure sum to develop a tool that could infiltrate Tails OS.

The hack tool is supposed to have been developed using an inherent vulnerability in Tails' video player. Thanks to this tool, Facebook was able to obtain the real IP address of the person playing the videos.

The tool was subsequently sent to the FBI through an intermediary source. The office took one of the victims on board to send Hernandez a video of a booby trap. This is how the predator was eventually arrested. A screenshot of the court documents shows a conversation between Hernandez and one of the victims uploading the malicious file in a chat that allegedly led to the hacking and tracking of the attacker. Hernandez has pleaded guilty to all the charges leveled against him, most of which are dire.

DOES FACEBOOK VIOLATE THE PRIVACY OF ITS USERS?

Although Facebook's role in catching the child abuser is admirable, the strategy used by the social network violates its privacy policy, therefore, it is unacceptable for a company to have an exploit created to violate one of its users.

After all, there are countless Tails OS users, and not all of them are suspected of cybercrime. A Facebook representative explained that this is the only time the company has helped law enforcement authorities consider the nature of the crime and it will not happen again in the future.

"It was a unique case, because he used such sophisticated methods to hide his identity, that we had to work with security experts to help the FBI bring him to justice," the Facebook spokesperson said.

However, it is not the first time that a third-party company has helped the FBI to arrest a child predator. In 2017, PureVPN helped the FBI track down the cyberstalker by providing his logs to the agency, although PureVPN said it does not collect user logs. 

NEW TO TAILS

This update brings Tails version 4.8, the most important changes are:

• The most substantial change, which is the unsafe browser, was the browser activated by default which in the new version is no longer enabled. The reason for this decision is clear, if by chance through a script you open a pop-up with that browser your IP will be visible, as you can understand from the name it is not safe.
• Tor updates to version 9.5.1, Thunderbird to version 68.9.0 and Linux to version 5.6.0.

If you want to update Tails, you can do it by hand or there will be automatic updates if you have a version of Tails 4.2 and above. If you have an older version you must necessarily do it manually, that is, go to the official website and download Tails for the use you want to make of it.

That's it and we'll see you in a future article.