Federal Government Information Technology

FBI Hacking Authority Expanded By Supreme Court

Informationweek: On Thursday, the US Supreme Court presented Congress with changes in the Rules of Criminal Procedure that will allow judges to issue warrants directed at electronic devices outside their jurisdiction. These changes vastly expand the government's surveillance and hacking power.

Magistrate judges are mostly limited to authorizing search and seizures in their jurisdiction. The changes to Rule 41, requested by the Department of Justice and endorsed by the Supreme Court justices, give judges the ability "to issue a warrant to use remote access to search electronic storage media and to seize or copy electronically stored information located within or outside that district" if the information sought has been "concealed through technological means" or the device has been damaged without authorization and is held in five or more districts.

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