Bitcoiners who use Tor be warned
Revised Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
A nifty little law was passed earlier this year by the US supreme court that will allow the FBI to use a single warrant to hack as many computers they’d like to, anywhere in the US and quite possibly the world or so those who are against the ruling say.
Basically the change means that a single warrant can be obtained to hack a single electronic device and any other electronic devices that were somehow connected to or in some way associated with the original source.
In other words the change to Rule 41 will be a single warrant that will be used for mass surveillance.
The running theory going around the web is that, a single warrant that is issued anywhere in America would then allow the FBI to control as many computers that were associated with the original source on a botnet.
Whether or not they were located in the United States.
This change leaves Tor and its equivalents feeling like they are prime targets. They feel that the change to Rule 41 is designed to attack Tor through its user base.
The change in the current law will take effect 12/1/2016.
Sen. Ron Wyden-D-Oregon is fighting the revision to Rule 41 which he says is a “staggering expansion of government hacking and surveillance authority.”
Not surprising, the measure hasn’t received a hearing or markup, yet Sen. Wyden is hopeful that a hearing or markup are coming soon.
Let's not forget, that Sen Wyden does in fact have support from other lawmakers, the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Sen. Wyden’s argument is pretty clear, he says that “this major policy change is going to make it easier for the government to hack into the personal devices of Americans and collect information about them, making American’s feel less safe instead of more.”
He fears that not only would this change grant the Government the ability to hack into a perpetrators device but also the victims which might be considered yet another attack on the victim.
He also feels that the government could also end up damaging, our personal devices, power grids, hospitals and nearly any other system connected to the internet.
Which is a fear that is totally founded, the US Government did manage to infect millions of computers worldwide and the networks of foreign Government’s with malware.
Sen. Wyden started to step up his game last week and in all honesty seeing someone who serves as an elected official fight for the rights of the American People is a rather refreshing change compared to what we normally see from our elected officials.
It is unclear if encrypted data and encrypted devices would be of a challenge to our Government’s hack-a-thon, should the changes to Rule 41 actually take effect on December 1, 2016.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Cristal M Clark
