Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
It used to be the bad guys who hacked computers.
But now law enforcement is resorting to the same trickery to search remote computers for investigations.
The IDG News Service reports that the Justice Department is seeking permission to hack computers to investigate complex criminal schemes that often utilize millions of machines nationwide.
The request has worried digital rights groups who said the hacking is intrusive and may violate the Fourth Amendment protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“By expanding federal law enforcement’s power to secretly exploit ‘zero-day’ vulnerabilities in software and Internet platforms, the proposal threatens to weaken Internet security for all of us,” Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said by email.
