From the “how screwed are you” files, we find this story wherein apparently the Megauploud convos were obtained via warrant by the FBI for Kim Dotcom and his staff as far back as the early days when MegaUpload opened it’s virtual doors.
From C|NET:
While it’s still not clear how federal investigators gained access to the conversations of founder Kim DotCom and other top managers, there are hints that the FBI managed to place government-issued spyware on the defendants’ computers.
The FBI cites alleged conversations between DotCom and his top lieutenants, including e-mail and Skype instant-messaging logs. Some of the records go back nearly five years, to MegaUpload’s earliest days as a cyberlocker service–even though Skype says “IM history messages will be stored for a maximum of 30 days” and the criminal investigation didn’t begin until a few months ago.
Now, this begs the question, was Skype duplicitous in their assertion that they only store 30 days of IM messages? Or was the FBI using a trojan to harvest this information? This raises the spectre of illegal wiretaps. It was said in the article that they had a warrant. Was anyone seen the warrant or managed to obtain a copy of it under FOIA?
I’m more curious than looking for a smoking gun.
For more on this read on.
Source: Article Link
(Image used under CC from Agitproper)