Feds want an expanded ability to hack criminal suspects’ computers

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/feds-want-an-expanded-ability-to-hack-criminal-suspects-computers/

By Cyrus Farivar
Ars Technica
March 27, 2014

The United States Department of Justice wants to broaden its ability to 
hack criminal suspects’ computers according to a new legal proposal that 
was first published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

If passed as currently drafted, federal authorities would gain an expanded 
ability to conduct “remote access” under a warrant against a target 
computer whose location is unknown or outside of a given judicial 
district. It would also apply in cases where that computer is part of a 
larger network of computers spread across multiple judicial districts. In 
the United States, federal warrants are issued by judges who serve one of 
the 94 federal judicial districts and are typically only valid for that 
particular jurisdiction.

The 402-page document entitled “Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules" is 
scheduled to be discussed at an upcoming Department of Justice (DOJ) 
meeting next month in New Orleans.

Federal agents have been known to use such tactics in past and ongoing 
cases: a Colorado federal magistrate judge approved sending malware to a 
suspect’s known e-mail address in 2012. But similar techniques have been 
rejected by other judges on Fourth Amendment grounds. If this rule 
revision were to be approved, it would standardize and expand federal 
agents’ ability to surveil a suspect and to exfiltrate data from a target 
computer regardless of where it is.

[...]

--
Find the best IT Security talent without breaking your recruiting budget.
Jobs cross-posted to Simply Hired, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Hot InfoSec Jobs - http://www.hotinfosecjobs.com/