Is the Outrage Over the FBI's Seattle Times Tactics a Knee-Jerk Reaction?

reifman writes The Internet's been abuzz the past 48 hours about reports the FBI distributed malware via a fake Seattle Times news website. What the agency actually did is more of an example of smart, precise law enforcement tactics. Is the outrage online an indictment of Twitter's tendency towards uninformed, knee-jerk reactions? In this age of unwarranted, unconstitutional blanket data collection by the NSA, the FBI's tactics from 2007 seem refreshing for their precision.

Comments

Re:Yes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the outrage is probably coming from people who saw "FBI" and "website" in the same sentence and just assumed they did something bad.

Nope, much of the outrage is coming from the Seattle Times who had their website spoofed.

Did they have a warrant?

[gurps_npc]

If they had a warrant, then it is perfectly good police tactics.

If they did not have a warrant, then it is an illegal invasion of privacy.

They electronically entered his computer and that is no different than entering his home. The fact that he had to click on it is meaningless. The creation of the malware would be illegal, without the warrant.

Now, the police may not be smart enough (or ethical enough) to have asked for the warrant, but that is what is clearly needed.

Re:No. Just no.

[thaylin]

What is illegal about it? They got a warrant, and sent a targeted email with a link people would not normally go to.

Re:answer to every headline - NO

[thaylin]

There was no entrapment. The person did a bomb threat, all they were doing was locating him.

What malware?

[mi]

The Internet's been abuzz the past 48 hours about reports the FBI distributed malware via a fake Seattle Times news website.

From TFA:

When the suspect clicked on the link, FBI software revealed his location and IP address to agents working the case.

If there is a slashdotter, who — from reading the above "description" — does not realize, that there was no "malware" installed on the doofus' computer and the suspect's IP was obtained simply from the FBI's web-server log, ought to close his account (and change his name)...

Re:No. Just no.

[thaylin]

And when someone searches or seizes your property without a warrant is it not illegal? You are defeated by your own statement, however I will add the definition which further defeats you.

warrant
wôrnt,wärnt/Submit
noun
1.
a document issued by a legal or government official authorizing the police or some other body to make an arrest, search premises, or carry out some other action relating to the administration of justice.

I think you needed to look up the definition, notice the last part.

Outrage meter: barely twitching

[Qzukk]

I'm having a hard time being outraged by a guy dumb enough to click a seattletirnes link on his myspace account.

There are real things to be outraged over, like the time the government used a MITM attack at the ISP to serve malware on the real slashdot site.