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FBI To Gain Expanded Hacking Powers as Senate Effort To Block Fails (reuters.com)
A last-ditch effort in the Senate to block or delay rule changes that would expand the U.S. government's hacking powers failed Wednesday, despite concerns the changes would jeopardize the privacy rights of innocent Americans and risk possible abuse by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Reuters adds: Democratic Senator Ron Wyden attempted three times to delay the changes which, will take effect on Thursday and allow U.S. judges will be able to issue search warrants that give the FBI the authority to remotely access computers in any jurisdiction, potentially even overseas. His efforts were blocked by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate's second-ranking Republican. The changes will allow judges to issue warrants in cases when a suspect uses anonymizing technology to conceal the location of his or her computer or for an investigation into a network of hacked or infected computers, such as a botnet.
Can the government just ban encryption already?
And do we really need HTTPS ?
The FBI's hacking would be easier if all systems were required to have a special port with a telnetd root shell running, exclusively for the FBI's use, of course.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Bear this in mind: A Democrat tried to block the FBI from hacking any computer anywhere and a Republican tried to stop it.
And yes, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has been opposing this snooping since he entered the Senate in 1996, so no, it doesn't have anything to do with Donald Trump or President Obama.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Who is msmash/manish? He/she seems to have an agenda?
Take note of who voted for, and against, this.
I haven't seen a posting yet of the entire list, but in addition to the two named in the summary, Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Steve Maines (R-Montana) are also noted in TFA as voicing opposition.
Yes, this is a big privacy blow. Probably the biggest in quite some time. Maybe the largest since the Patriot Act. And yes, there will be little outcry because most people don't even know or care what this means. But what will no doubt happen is the fed will shop around until they find the judge who grant them every warrant they want. Which they will no doubt find several if not more. This should be called, "Just Grant My Damned Warrant"
Just thought I would point that out to any passing FBI operative who thinks that they can go interfering with remote devices without considering international borders.
You may just find yourself falling foul of international treaties initiated by your own government that class this sort of action as cyber-warfare. I just hope the government above the target of your hack is understanding and decides not to retaliate with physical force to your electronic attack.
I for one would find it an interesting exercise in jurisprudence for the FBI to be indicted in a foreign court for cyberwarfare.
That's an awfully good question.
My best guess -- there will be an extended period of whole-hog persecution of Democrats for, well, being Democrats, and Republicans will get a pass from the newly politicized FBI. Afterwards, I expect Republicans will dial it down a bit, lest it become too obvious that they're using law enforcement directly as political tool. If I were a Democrat, I'd plan for two years of sitting around with my thumb up my ass, because at this point I don't believe the Republicans will let Democrats stand in the way of any of the massive number of changes Republicans want to implement A.S.A.P.
However, given the hyper-partisan environment we're in now, I wouldn't want to lay money on which way things will ultimately go. It could be that Republicans find they actually like jailing political opponents, and that authoritarian rule by a single party is just what the doctor ordered. In that case, Americans can likely kiss democracy goodbye. I suspect many Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, would be happy to chuck democracy in the shitter right now, provided of course that their party is the one that retains power afterwards.
And while I like a lot of what Obama has done, I disagree with him strongly on expanding the powers of the NSA/FBI instead of adding better checks on them. Of course, he's not solely to blame - there are a lot of people in Congress that deserve a good share of blame - but the buck does stop in the Oval Office as far as that's concerned. (Now if he vetoed it and Congress overrode his veto, I'd say his hands would be clean, but obviously that didn't happen.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Bear this in mind: A Democrat tried to block the FBI from hacking any computer anywhere and a Republican tried to stop it.
And yes, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has been opposing this snooping since he entered the Senate in 1996, so no, it doesn't have anything to do with Donald Trump or President Obama.
Yep.
Taking $60 million from down-ballot campaigns and giving it to the Clinton campaign so she could defeat Bernie Sanders doesn't seem like such a good move now, does it?