The FBI has been bribing employees of Best Buy’s Geek Squad to hack into computers for the past 10 years, according to a stunning new report that raises concerns over Fourth Amendment violations.
Technicians were paid between $500 and $1,000 as “informants” and encouraged to search customers’ computers for any illegal material, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit found.
The FOIA request was filed by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation after the FBI’s link to the Geek Squad was uncovered in the child pornography case against California doctor Mark Rettenmaier.
Documents recently released to EFF detail the FBI’s close relationship with Best Buy.
A memo from September 2008 describes how the big-box electronic retailer hosted a meeting of the agency’s “Cyber Working Group” at Best Buy’s Kentucky repair facility and even gave agents a tour of the space.
The memo also said the agency’s Louisville Division “has maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad’s management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division’s Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.”
Geek Squad technicians would flag what they believed to be child porn in calls to FBI’s Louisville field office, EFF said. The feds would show up, review the images in question and determine whether they were illegal. The hard drive or computer would then be seized and sent to another FBI field office closest to where the device’s owner lived, EFF said.
Local agents would investigate further — and sometimes try to obtain a search warrant.
In some of the reports obtained by EFF, FBI agents identified Geek Squad technicians as “CHS” — or confidential human sources. In other instances, agents noted the calls as coming from Best Buy employees.
“The relationship potentially circumvents computer owners’ Fourth Amendment rights,” EFF said.
Rettenmaier was charged after a technician went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011, according to CBS.
EFF said at least one tech in Rettenmaier’s case was paid $500 to do the sleuthing. The X-rated material allegedly was found in an unallocated space on the doctor’s hard drive — which would have required forensic software to find.
Charges against Rettenmaier were tossed last year after a judge ruled that an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for his home.
Best Buy has denied the claims.