Law Enforcement Hacking
9 Articles
Hack-to-Patch by Law Enforcement Is a Dangerous Practice
Recent so-called hack-to-patch activity by law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent for the global business community. Serious security, technical, and policy drawbacks emerge…
We’re From the Government, We’re Here to Help: The FBI and the Microsoft Exchange Hack
In a recent operation, the FBI removed malware from hacked Microsoft Exchange servers, and only attempted to notify the servers’ owners after the fact. This approach is almost…
App Stores as Back-Doors for Government Regulation of End-to-End Encryption
App stores make natural chokepoints for de facto government regulation, without the long and politically expensive process of legislation. But the privacy and security implications…
Why the Ghost Keys ‘Solution’ to Encryption is No Solution
The use of applications such as Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger for communications secured by end-to-end encryption has exploded over the past few years. Two…
Shining a Light on Federal Law Enforcement’s Use of Computer Hacking Tools
Ten years ago, an FBI official impersonated an Associated Press reporter to lure and track a teenager suspected of sending in prank bomb threats to his school. To find him, the…
Looking back at 2016, A Status Check on Government Hacking
Last year, the ongoing encryption debate took a backseat to a steady drip of stories and developments related to government hackings. This set the stage for a set of policy and…
Rule 41 Has Been Updated: What’s Needed Next
On December, 1, the revised version of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 went into effect. The Department of Justice, which first proposed an earlier (and more expansive) version…
Whose World Is This?: US and UK Government Hacking
On both sides of the Atlantic, we are witnessing the dramatic expansion of government hacking powers. In the United States, a proposed amendment to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules…
With Remote Hacking, the Government’s Particularity Problem Isn’t Going Away
Electronic surveillance succeeds because it is secret. When the government seeks to record “what is whispered in the closet,” in the words of Justice Brandeis, it must use…
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