Judge rules FBI can hack any time, any, place, anywhere

[tangor]

A federal district court in Virginia has ruled that the FBI has the right to hack into computers around the world without getting a local warrant, and without any review by courts.

The ruling, by US District Judge Henry Morgan, comes during the prosecution of Edward Matish.

Matish is one of the 100-plus suspects arrested after the FBI took over the Playpen child abuse website and used it to infect visitors with a "network investigative technique" (NIT). This revealed their IP addresses and details of the computers they were using.

[theregister.co.uk...]
If this ruling is allowed to stand then not only users, but webmasters, too, should be very afraid. As I view this we have a rogue judge creating law from the bench without due process or consideration, not only in the USA, but worldwide.

[keyplyr]

"A federal district court in Virginia has ruled that the FBI has the right to hack into computers around the world..."

Hardly valid since the FBI does not have "rights" outside the US, no matter what a Virginia judge rules. All the FBI can do is request info from other nations.

[toidi]

All the FBI can do is request info from other nations.

theoretically, this is correct. Real world, i suspect not so much.

[keyplyr]

The FBI couldn't even get Apple (a US company) to unencrypt a phone :)

[bill]

The internet and its global nature opens up a whole new can of worms. Regardless of how their charter may limit the scope of their operations, US and other nations' law enforcement arms are pushing to unfetter themselves from this. Saying if you're on the net you're fair game seems to be standard operating procedure these days. All the more reason to take your security seriously. It may not be your own country's authorities trying to get into your systems.

[toidi]

A local judge here ruled that the police do not need a search warrant to search a computer. His rational was that when you access the web and let so many other entities onto your system you are giving up your right to privacy and therefore you can not expect any privacy from the police.

hopefully, a higher court will shoot this down.

[engine]

His rational was that when you access the web and let so many other entities onto your system you are giving up your right to privacy and therefore you can not expect any privacy from the police.

What was he smoking?