FBI Used a Single Warrant to Hack Over 8,000 Computers in 120 Countries
By Prempal Singh
The FBI used a solitary warrant to hack into more than 8,000 computers in 120 different countries, according to recently released evidentiary hearing transcripts. The warrant was in the beginning issued in February previous year which enabled the FBI to set up a sting procedure on the kid pornography site Playpen, in which the Bureau set up malware to get IP addresses from users of the dark website.
Reports are the most significant ever (known) crack carried out by a law enforcement agency in the United States. Previously reported that the warrant busted around you 1000 alleged users of Playpen in the US and that the FBI had also hacked computers nationwide, Austria, Republic of chile, Colombia, Denmark, and Portugal.
But the new evidentiary hearing transcripts reveal that the hack went much farther and wider than early reports revealed.
Lawyers representing defendants in the criminal proceedings of the Playpen hack are mounting the FBI hacks as an example of the FBI overreaching based on a single warrant. The primary technologist at the North American Civil Liberties Union, Captain Christopher Soghoian, told Motherboard: “The fact that a solitary magistrate judge could allow the FBI to hack into 8,000 people in 120 countries is truly terrifying.
Illegally looking at videos of kids being raped and abused on the dark web is also truly terrifying, but a few save that for the courts.
Yet, magistrate judges will soon be able to give warrants for hacks outdoors of their districts, which means it will become {much simpler|easier|less difficult} for the FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION to acquire broad warrants for hacks. So far, these warrants have only recently been used for child porn cases, but privacy recommends are concerned that with the freer rein, the FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION might start sticking their malware where keep in mind that fit in.