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

Posted by samzenpus on from the wait-a-second dept.

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.

5 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No. Just no. by thaylin · · Score: 4, Informative

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

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    When you cant win, ad hominem.
  2. Re:answer to every headline - NO by thaylin · · Score: 4, Informative

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

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    When you cant win, ad hominem.
  3. What malware? by mi · · Score: 5, Informative

    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)...

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    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  4. Re:No. Just no. by thaylin · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    When you cant win, ad hominem.
  5. Outrage meter: barely twitching by Qzukk · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.