Senator Rand Paul to back bill blocking FBI hacking expansion

[jct74]

Senator Rand Paul to back bill blocking FBI hacking expansion

BY DUSTIN VOLZ
Thu May 12, 2016

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul plans to become the first Republican co-sponsor of legislation to block a pending judicial rule change that would let U.S. judges issue search warrants for remote access to computers located in any jurisdiction, his office told Reuters on Thursday.

The bill is expected to be introduced next week. Backing from Paul, a former Republican candidate for president with libertarian leanings, lends bipartisan support to an effort to undo a little-noticed modification to a text governing procedural rules for the U.S. court system that civil liberties groups warn would drastically expand the FBI’s hacking authority.

So far, that cause has largely been championed solely by Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and digital privacy advocate. He has vowed to work to stop the rule change on grounds it would allow the government to use one warrant to access and search thousands or millions of computers at once, potentially implicating those suspected of no wrongdoing.

...

read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKCN0Y32YC

[Bern]

Some background on Rule 41 (better explanation of it) here:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/0...ers-government

[jct74]

Sens. Paul, Wyden and Bipartisan Senators Call on Congress to Stop Massive Expansion of Government Surveillance and Hacking Power

Stopping Mass Hacking Act Reverses Disastrous Changes to Warrant Procedures; Congress Must Act or Government Will Be Able to Hack Millions of Americans’ Devices with a Single Warrant, Compromising Security and Privacy

05.19.16

Washington, D.C.– U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., today introduced the Stopping Mass Hacking (SMH) Act to protect millions of law-abiding Americans from government hacking. The Stopping Mass Hacking (SMH) Act prevents recently approved changes to Rule 41 from going into effect. The changes would allow the government to get a single warrant to hack an unlimited number of Americans’ computers if their computers had been affected by criminals, possibly without notifying the victims.

Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., are original co-sponsors of the Senate bill.

“This is a dramatic expansion of the government’s hacking and surveillance authority. Such a substantive change with an enormous impact on Americans’ constitutional rights should be debated by Congress, not maneuvered through an obscure bureaucratic process,” said Sen. Wyden. “Unless Congress acts before December 1, Americans’ security and privacy will be thrown out the window and hacking victims will find themselves hacked again - this time by their own government.”

"The Fourth Amendment wisely rejected general warrants and requires individualized suspicion before the government can forcibly search private information. I fear this rule change will make it easier for the government to search innocent Americans’ computers and undermine the requirement for individual suspicion," said Sen. Paul.

"Congress must act to prevent this threat to the privacy of law abiding Americans and ensure a rule change of this magnitude has the proper oversight." said Sen. Baldwin. "I am proud to join this bipartisan effort. We need to stand up to this government intrusion and protect American civil liberties and freedoms."

“Our law enforcement policies need to be updated to reflect 21st century realities with a process that is transparent, effective and protects our civil liberties,” said Sen. Daines.

“This bill reins in the government’s ability to search and seize our personal electronic information. Our right to privacy doesn’t end when we turn on a computer, send an email, or search the Internet,” said Sen. Tester. “We must ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools they need to keep us safe while also protecting our civil liberties, and this bill is a first step in that direction.”

A House companion bill is expected to be introduced soon.

At the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ) the U.S. Federal Courts recommended an administrative change to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure which were approved by the Supreme Court last month.

The amendments to Rule 41 would make it easier for DOJ to obtain warrants for remote electronic searches. The amendments would allow a single judge to issue a single warrant authorizing government hacking of an untold number of devices located anywhere in the world. The amendments would take effect on December 1, 2016 absent Congressional action.

https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/pre...-hacking-power


more coverage here:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...-hacking.shtml
http://reason.com/blog/2016/05/17/ro...p-again-to-hal

[Suzanimal]

FBI to gain expanded hacking powers as Senate effort to block fails

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A last-ditch effort in the Senate to block or delay rule changes that would expand the U.S. government's hacking powers failed Wednesday, despite concerns the changes would jeopardize the privacy rights of innocent Americans and risk possible abuse by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden attempted three times to delay the changes, which will take effect on Thursday and allow U.S. judges will be able to issue search warrants that give the FBI the authority to remotely access computers in any jurisdiction, potentially even overseas. His efforts were blocked by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate's second-ranking Republican.

The changes will allow judges to issue warrants in cases when a suspect uses anonymizing technology to conceal the location of his or her computer or for an investigation into a network of hacked or infected computers, such as a botnet.

Magistrate judges can currently only order searches within the jurisdiction of their court, which is typically limited to a few counties.

In a speech from the Senate floor, Wyden said that the changes to Rule 41 of the federal rules of criminal procedure amounted to "one of the biggest mistakes in surveillance policy in years."

The government will have "unprecedented authority to hack into Americans' personal phones, computers and other devices," Wyden said.

He added that such authority, which was approved by the Supreme Court in a private vote earlier this year, but was not subject to congressional approval, was especially troubling in the hands of an administration of President-elect Trump, a Republican who has "openly said he wants the power to hack his political opponents the same way Russia does."

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana also delivered speeches voicing opposition to the rule changes.

The U.S. Justice Department has pushed for the changes to the federal rules of criminal procedure for years, arguing they are procedural in nature and the criminal code needed to be modernized for the digital age.

In an effort to address concerns, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell wrote a blog post this week arguing that the benefits given to authorities from the rule changes outweighed any potential for "unintended harm."

"The possibility of such harm must be balanced against the very real and ongoing harms perpetrated by criminals - such as hackers, who continue to harm the security and invade the privacy of Americans through an ongoing botnet, or pedophiles who openly and brazenly discuss their plans to sexually assault children," Caldwell wrote.

A handful of judges in recent months had dismissed evidence brought as part of a sweeping FBI child pornography sting, saying the search warrants used to hack suspects' computers exceeded their jurisdiction.

The new rules are expected to make such searches generally valid.

Blocking the changes would have required legislation to pass both houses of Congress, then be signed into law by the president.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/fbi-gain-...--finance.html

[Bern]

That sucks. I haz a sad.