Dive Brief:
- The FBI gained expanded hacking rights Wednesday, as a last-ditch Senate-led effort to block proposed changes to rule 41 of the government's Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure fell through. Changes will allow court judges to issue warrants outside their jurisdiction in order to more easily access technologically concealed or hidden data related to a crime in question, reports International Business Times.
- Adaptation of the rule will help the government investigate crimes involving stored data, but also cyberattacks across the public and private sector, such as the DDoS attack against Dyn that affected several major businesses and sites earlier this year, says advocates of the changes.
- Still, many civil liberties groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in addition to the senators that opposed changes in the rule, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, have expressed concerns over individual privacy rights, arguing that ambiguities in the new rule may result in violations of the Fourth Amendment, reports Fortune.
Dive Insight:
Government efforts to gain access to private, often encrypted data hidden or concealed in technology gained significant public attention, as well as a great deal of scrutiny, during the San Bernadino iPhone case. Apple had refused to grant the FBI a backdoor into its encryption security framework for the sake of accessing information relevant to a terrorist incident. Changes in rule 41 will allow for the government to have greater hacking capabilities and more authority in accessing this type of data, as judges will be able to issue warrants regardless of jurisdictional limitations.
Wyden, who sponsored the Stopping Mass Hacking Act against the changes, argues that the rule could lead to potential privacy infringements. This reality necessitates that the Justice Department address the language of the rule and its implications particularly as President-elect Donald Trump transitions into the White House. Wyden expressed concerns earlier this year that Trump had openly said that he "wants the power to hack his political opponents" just like the Russian government, reports Reuters.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell tried to address such concerns in a blog post this week, claiming that benefits the rule offers to the FBI will make up for any "unintended harm." She refers specifically to the government's investigation "Playpen" involving placement of tracking software on computers of child pornography suspects. Many of the defendants discovered were able to contest their charges on claims of violation of privacy. Rule 41 will help the government prosecute criminals in such incidences, argues Caldwell.