An amendment to ‘’Rule 41’’ of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure went into effect on the 1st of December, the amendment regulates legal search and seizure. The sole intent of the Rule 41 is to drastically expand the U.S. government’s hacking powers, the amendment was intentionally kept under the radar due to the controversial online privacy and cybersecurity infringements that it facilitates.
Congress proposed the passing of the Rule 41, with no limitations Unfortunately, this is such a big deal since as it signifies the end of online privacy for both hackers and the victims of hacking.
The founder of the original pirate party and head of privacy at PrivateInternetAccess.com, Rick Falkvinge has written an article titled ‘’Today, the FBI becomes the enemy of every computer user and every IT security professional worldwide.’’ Falkvinge states that the new Rule 41 gives American law enforcement unprecedented leeway to break into any computer in the world. This comes at a time when privacy is being considered as a thing of the past.
The intent behind the new amendment is to soften the legal requirements for obtaining search and seizure warrants, this will grant the government remote access to search, seize, and copy data from devices that are actively hiding their location, especially when they are believed to be involved in a crime.
The Rule 41 is basically allowing the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to hack anywhere from five to millions of computers and/or devices across the U.S. with a single warrant. The idea behind Rule 41 is to empower government more power to crack down on cybercrimes that are increasingly becoming very difficult to legally prosecute and identify. According to proponents of the amendment, it will give governments the ability to target Bonnets . Botnets are networks of devices that are infected with malware, thus giving the hacker the ability to control them remotely.
