U.S.—The Wall Street Journal is reporting the FBI has been ramping up its efforts to hire hackers to install malware in order to spy on suspected criminals. The FBI has used similar techniques to remotely turn on microphones to eavesdrop on top organized crime suspects.
Federal agencies have largely kept quiet about these capabilities, but court documents and interviews with people involved in the programs provide new details about the hacking tools, including spyware delivered to computers and phones through email or Web links—techniques more commonly associated with attacks by criminals.
[....] The FBI develops some hacking tools internally and purchases others from the private sector. With such technology, the bureau can remotely activate the microphones in phones running Google Inc.’s Android software to record conversations, one former U.S. official said. It can do the same to microphones in laptops without the user knowing, the person said.
The irony here is the FBI warns citizens to beware that pirated software might contain malware on there own website, the whole time the FBI is secretly installing malware to spy on you via paid hackers.