Sen Wyden rallies opposition to new fed hacking powers

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) is trying to block the Justice Department's request to expand its remote hacking powers, after the Supreme Court signed off on the proposal April 28. “These amendments will have significant consequences for Americans’ privacy and the scope of the government’s powers to conduct remote surveillance and searches of electronic devices,” warned Sen Wyden, a prominent digital privacy advocate and member of the Intelligence Committee.

The proposed alteration to the little-known criminal procedure rules would allow judges to grant warrants for electronic searches in multiple locations or even when investigators don’t know the physical location of a device. The Justice Department, which has been working for years on getting the change, insists the revision to what’s known as Rule 41 is a necessary update to match the realities of modern digital investigations. But tech companies such as Google, computer scientists and privacy advocates have decried the potential update, which they believe would give the FBI the authority to hack computers with little oversight. The Supreme Court OK'd the change April 28 and passed the request along to Congress for final approval. If lawmakers give the thumbs-up, or do nothing, the change would go into effect in six months. Sen Wyden said he will soon introduce legislation that would block the revision. “Under the proposed rules,” Sen Wyden said, “the government would now be able to obtain a single warrant to access and search thousands or millions of computers at once.” “And the vast majority of the affected computers would belong to the victims, not the perpetrators, of a cybercrime,” he added.