How The FBI Crossed The Gap Between Surveillance and Hacking Civilians

Ever since Edward Snowden revealed the intricate inner workings of the NSA, there has never been more scrutiny against law enforcement agencies trying to spy on citizens. Especially the FBI is under a lot of fire these days, but as it turns out, they have been hacking civilian computers for nearly 20 years. To make matters worse, they have gotten even more powerful through legal means ever since.

The FBI Will Not Give Up On Hacking

Although everyone around the world with more than two peas for a brain is well aware of law enforcement agencies hacking civilians left and right, it is tough to prove these allegations. After all, there is no such thing as an official database where these events are logged and categorized.

But there is an even bigger concern, coming in the form of how the search warrants are permitting hacking. All of these warrants are written in a language no human being can understand correctly, and they leave a lot of room for different interpretations. As a result, it is all but impossible to tell when and why law enforcement hacking is taking place.

If that was not enough to get people worried, there is also no need for the FBI to report to an overarching body. While Congress would like to be kept in the loop at all times, law enforcement agencies have no reason to do so. All in all, it seems rather difficult to link any truth to the allegations of the FBI hacking civilians.

That being said, there is evidence to be found, assuming people are up for some research. There are growing concerns regarding the FBI attempting to create security and encryption backdoors at every possible turn. Doing so would give them unrestricted access to citizen information, as well as allow them to monitor communication in real-time.

Moreover, there is evidence to be found regarding FBI-developed hacking tools. Carnivore, The Scarfo Case, and Magic Lantern are three different incidents on which plenty of information can be uncovered. In more recent years, there is the breach of Tor in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, as well as the alleged distribution of malware to bust PlayPen members.

Source: Finextra

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