WASHINGTON DC – Starting Dec. 1, federal investigators can seek permission from a magistrate to plant hacking software on a computer that’s disguising its location.
The change affects Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which are proposed by the US Department of Justice and approved by the US Supreme Court.
This form of government hacking is a tool that prosecutors have used to identify suspects in financial crimes and child porn cases, who typically use anonymizing tools to hide their computers’ IP addresses. That makes them challenging to catch. The changes will also let investigators use a single warrant to access the computers of hacking victims in some cases.
The Justice Department has called the change essential to fighting crime, but privacy advocates say it gives federal investigators too much power. Some lawmakers also chafed at the lack of public debate on the matter.
On Wednesday, a group of US senators tried to introduce three separate bills that would have either stopped or stalled the rule change. The Senate didn’t take up any of the proposed bills, allowing the change to take effect.
“While the proposed changes are not necessarily bad or good, they are serious, and they present significant privacy concerns that warrant careful consideration and debate,” Sen. Christopher Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
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