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FBI Seeks To Legally Hack You If You're Connected To TOR Or a VPN
SonicSpike writes The investigative arm of the Department of Justice is attempting to short-circuit the legal checks of the Fourth Amendment by requesting a change in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. These procedural rules dictate how law enforcement agencies must conduct criminal prosecutions, from investigation to trial. Any deviations from the rules can have serious consequences, including dismissal of a case. The specific rule the FBI is targeting outlines the terms for obtaining a search warrant. It's called Federal Rule 41(b), and the requested change would allow law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search electronic data without providing any specific details as long as the target computer location has been hidden through a technical tool like Tor or a virtual private network. It would also allow nonspecific search warrants where computers have been intentionally damaged (such as through botnets, but also through common malware and viruses) and are in five or more separate federal judicial districts. Furthermore, the provision would allow investigators to seize electronically stored information regardless of whether that information is stored inside or outside the court's jurisdiction.
If the FBI starts to attack Tor and VPN users, those users are going to fight back. If they are not in the US the FBI might not be able to stop them doing it either.
All this kind of thing does is make the US a more legitimate target for cyber attacks. The NSA and GCHQ are already fair game for hacking because they try to illegally hack you, so it's just self defence.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Or if you know somebody who has used TOR or a VPN. Or if you know what TOR or VPN is. Or if you might know somebody who might possibly know someone else who could know what TOR or VPN is. In fact, the FBI just wants to hack you.
but if you use it, that is grounds for us to take it away.
Makes perfect sense in an inside the belt way sort of way.
So the Postal service is still the most secure legally protected method for sending data. Just mail CDs.
Boy, I can imagine all of the companies that have employees connect through VPNs to do confidential work will love this. I work for an internationally-based corporation that has me on a VPN before I can even BEGIN to work and I would imagine they'll be pretty pissed off if the FBI is legally hacking into their private systems.
This is such bullshit. When are we going to get some lawmakers who actually understand the fucking technology?
Such idiots...
When I'm connected to my company's VPN connection, they route all of my traffic over that connection, sounds like this law is giving the feds carte blanche to hack all work-from-home users.
Once we kick those evil Rethuglicans out of power, we'll see the Democrats restore our rights.
Yeah, that worked out real well.
Are we beginning to see that the problem is the government itself, and not the particular party in power?
And are we beginning to see that giving that government more money is a really bad idea?
So it's true ... when they outlaw privacy, only criminals will have privacy.
And then there's this:
We want extraterritorial laws, with no judicial oversight.
I'm sorry, but can the rest of the world decree that FBI agents should all be shot on sight as enemies of basic civil rights? The argument is about equally stupid as what the FBI claim.
America, you have a problem, and you are making it the problem of everyone on the planet.
Land of the free and home of the brave? You have to be fucking kidding us.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The US government funded Tor development and encourages its use as a way to avoid repressive governments and then considers its use in the US to be a suspcious act.
The irony, it burns!
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From the article:
...without providing any specific details as long as the target computer location has been hidden through a technical tool like Tor or a virtual private network. It would also allow nonspecific search warrants...
Text of the 4th amendment to the constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The article is light on details, but if it is accurate, this looks like a straightforward violation of the 4th amendment. The devil is always in the details though. The article may be an oversimplification.
And what proof do you have of that? What assurances do you have they don't abuse this?
Sorry, but assuming law enforcement gives a shit about the law, or will follow it, is now such a naive and moronic statement as to be bordering on delusional. Increasingly, law enforcement wants to get around the law and oversight, and just do whatever the hell they want.
Which means you more or less have to assume they're going to misuse every tool in the book, and treat them like children.
And a valid warrant? Don't make me fucking laugh. How many times have law enforcement broken into the wrong damned home and killed some poor schmuck who wasn't doing anything other than defending his home from masked assailants?
I'm long past the point where I trust the actions, motivations, or ethics of the fucking police.
Because apparently they either don't know the law, or don't care.
Which is precisely why people don't trust them, and are growing hostile to them. If collectively the police don't give a shit about our rights, WTF would we give them more power with less oversight.
Sorry, but this is bad policing by agencies who find following the law too inconvenient.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And then they'll outlaw that.
Essentially anything which interferes with their ability to monitor your without restriction is now being deemed illegal.
Soon, they'll make it illegal to have secrets in your head, and you must submit to mandatory questioning and reeducation.
Sorry, but America has jumped the shark, and is taking down the whole world with them.
And for some reason, people are blindly accepting this crap.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
ALL major online email providers (google mail, yahoo, microsoft, etc.)
That horse has already left the barn, they even poked fun at Google's internal setup with a doodle. There was no enormous shitstorm. Google responded by encrypting their internal traffic (or announcing that they did, anyway) and life went on. Millions upon millions of Americans simply don't care, and millions more actually want the government reading everyone's email because they think it protects us from them ay-rab turrists. Until the surveillance apparatus somehow fucks up football or The Voice or Pawn Stars, nobody's going to give a shit.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
My Lord, I request permission to knock in any door in Boston which my men find latched.
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