Wyden to introduce bill fighting new fed hacking powers

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is expected within days to unveil legislation blocking a Justice Department request to expand its remote hacking powers.

{mosads}“Sen. Wyden is currently speaking with interested co-sponsors and plans on introducing legislation within days to reverse the amendments to Rule 41,” a Wyden aide told The Hill.

The proposed alteration to little-known criminal procedure rules — approved by the Supreme Court last week — 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 the amendment has met with swift pushback from tech companies, such as Google, as well as from Wyden and civil liberties organizations, which fear the change will give the FBI the authority to hack computers with little oversight.

“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,” Wyden said last week, announcing his intention to bring legislation.

“Under the proposed rules, 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 said.

The proposal now heads to Congress, where lawmakers have seven months to weigh in. Absent any congressional action, the rule will take effect on Dec. 1.