Feds Seek to Loosen Rules on Hacking Computers

[Hum]

A U.S. proposal to expand the U.S. Justice Department?s ability to hack into computers during criminal investigations is furthering tension in the debate over how to balance privacy rights with the need to keep the country safe.

A committee of judges that sets national policy governing criminal investigations will try to sort through it all. It?s weighing a proposal made public yesterday that would give federal agents greater leeway to secretly access suspected criminals? computers in bunches, not simply one at a time.

The underlying goal is to take rules written for searching property and modernize them for the Internet age. The proposal arrives at a precipitous time for a government still managing backlash to electronic spying by the National Security Agency that was exposed last year by contractor Edward Snowden.

?What I think we?re looking for as a society is a way to investigate crime while limiting the exposure of information that should be kept private,? said Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University.

While the intent of the proposal is reasonable, the idea of law enforcement potentially placing malware on computers of innocent Americans that can access personal data is a cause for concern, he said.

?I don?t think many Americans would be comfortable with the government sending code onto their computers without their knowledge or consent,? Nathan Freed Wessler, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a telephone interview. ?The power they?re seeking is certainly a broad one.?

Child pornographers and other criminals are increasingly using technology to shield their identities, according to the department. Such technology includes proxy servers that mask the true Internet addresses of a criminal?s computer, or the use of hundreds or thousands of compromised computers known as a botnet.

The rule would lift the geographical restriction on warrants for computer investigations, permit agents to remotely access computers when locations have been ?concealed through technological means,? and allow a single warrant for searches of certain computers located in five or more judicial districts.

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[Torolol]

and the windows regular patches will provides backdoor for the FEDs to hack.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Pretty soon you will be arrested and charged with hacking for pressing CTRL + ALT + Delete on a Walmart display laptop.